


The World As We Know It

by KiaraUniverse



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: 80s, 90s, F/F, F/M, Family, Homophobia, Human AU, Secret Identity, a lot of bellow diamond fluff bc i’am a whore for bellow diamond, but you can’t have fluff without some angst, interalized homophia, kind of a office!AU, relationships, same sex relationships, smut in some chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:48:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 46,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23280460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiaraUniverse/pseuds/KiaraUniverse
Summary: “If Pink was the sun, we were the planets. We revolved around her, we needed her for survival.”Pink and Pearl both want to run away from their old lives.Yellow and Blue struggle to balance their relationship and careers in a time where society isn’t accepting.
Relationships: Blue Diamond/Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe), Pearl/Rose Quartz (Steven Universe), Rose Quartz/Greg Universe, Ruby/Sapphire (Steven Universe)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	1. Family Fued

**Author's Note:**

> Characters:
> 
> Pearl: June Pearl  
> Pink Pearl: Whitney Pearl  
> Yellow Pearl: Yasmin Pearl  
> Blue Pearl: Rebecca (Bec) Pearl

An uncomfortable silence had filled their tiny home. It was way past Pearl’s bedtime, but no one had remembered to put her to bed. Her sisters were too busy being distracted to remember.

Pearl’s second oldest sister, Yasmin, was sitting in the loveseat across the room, frowning at the pile of bills laid across her lap, while Pearl’s third oldest sister, Bec, was sitting on the couch doodling in her notebook.

The three of them had been waiting for their eldest sister, Whitney, to come home from her trip to Empire City. Whitney had been unemployed for a while now, but earlier this week she had found a job opportunity in Empire City and decided to travel to the city for the job interview.

“I’ll be back by Sunday morning.” Whitney had promised, but when Pearl had woken up this morning, her oldest sister was nowhere to be seen.

Yasmin was furious that Whitney hadn’t returned when she promised. No Whitney meant no one to watch Pearl, so Bec had to miss another day of work in order to watch her little sister.

Pearl was only five, but she already understood that their family was struggling financially. Her sisters worked hard to provide for their family, especially Yasmin, who had two jobs and was always working.

Sometimes, Pearl felt like she was another added problem that her sisters had to deal with. Their mother had died when Pearl was a toddler, leaving her sister’s to take care of her. Her sisters were young and Pearl understood the weight of their stress, so Pearl would often try her best to be a good kid, even if it meant sometimes she would have to be unhappy.

So even though Pearl was exhausted, she wouldn’t whine about it. She’ll just wait until one of her sisters figured out how late it was.

Pulling her legs towards her chest, Pearl rested her chin on her knees as she watched Yasmin anxiously run her hands through her short blonde hair. She could tell by the look on her face that something was bothering her sister.

In the corner of her eye, Pearl could see Bec lightly sketching a figure into her notebook. Turning towards Bec, Pearl squinted at the sketch as she tried to figure out what her sister was drawing.

Earlier today Bec had let Pearl play with her nice paints, the expensive ones Whitney and Yasmin had given her as a birthday present. Together they had swirled yellow and orange paints together on the canvas until their painting of a sunflower was completed.

Rubbing at her tired eyes, Pearl let out a loud yawn, catching Bec’s attention. Looking up from her notebook, Bec pushed away her brown bangs from her face as she glanced over at the analog clock hanging above Yasmin. Realizing the time, Bec closed her notebook before placing it on the coffee table.

“I’m sorry, June.” Bec apologized as she got up from the couch. “Let’s get you to bed.”

Truthfully, Pearl hated her first name. She much rather have a nickname like Bec did, but Pearl had never bothered to talk to her sisters about it.

Right as Pearl is about to get up from the couch, the sound of the door opening had stopped her from moving any further.

Standing behind the door was Whitney, who was holding her suitcase and a couple of shopping bags. As soon as she entered the house, Whitney immediately dropped her bags on to the floor, before closing the door shut.

As soon as Whitney entered the living room, a huge smile lit across her face. “Hey guys! Did you miss me!”

Avoiding eye contact, Bec sat back down on the couch, while Yasmin placed her stack of bills onto the coffee table.

“Jeez, why are you guys so serious?” Whitney said to no one in particular. “And why is June still up? It’s almost ten.”

“You said you’d be home by this morning.” Yasmin declared. “Because of you, Bec had to miss another day of work. You know we can’t afford to miss days of work.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” Whitney sighed, annoyance clear in her tone. “I just got caught up in the city.”

“Doing what!?” Yasmin questioned, her voice rising to an angry tone that made Pearl uncomfortable. “Tell me, what was so important that it made you stay in Empire City for another day!”

“Don’t talk to me like that.” Whitney scoffed.

“I can talk to you however I want to.” Yasmin snapped.

“Well in case you forgot, Mom put me in charge when she passed away.” Whitney pointed out. “Not you. So stop acting like a little bitch.”

“You in charge?!” Yasmin chuckled. “That’s funny because I’m the one who’s working hard everyday. How are you in charge when you do nothing?!”

Pearl watched in horror as her sisters continued to argue, their voices getting increasingly louder with every sentence they spoke. She’d had never seen Yasmin and Whitney fight like this before. They would get into little arguments every now and then, but never to the extent of them screaming at each other.

Every part of Pearl wanted to run to the safety of her and Bec’s shared room, but she felt frozen, like if she was somehow glued to the couch. Noticing Pearl’s discomfort, Bec gently tried to comfort her sister, but her soft words were quickly overpowered by Whitney’s and Yasmin’s screaming match.

It was suddenly all too much for Pearl.

Tears quickly spilled out of Pearl’s eyes, as sobs started to shake her tiny body. Trying to hide her distress, Pearl buried her face into her knees. Beside her, Pearl could feel Bec get up from the couch.

“Stop!”

Bec’s voice cuts through the screaming, causing the room to go silent. Bec, who is always soft and gentle with her words, is never the one to raise her voice.

Lifting her head up, Pearl saw Bec facing Whitney and Yasmin with her hands clenched into fists. “You’re making June upset.” Becs explained, her voice returning to its normal, soft tone.

Yasmin and Whitney both turn towards Pearl, who was trying her best to wipe away her tears.

“June, I’m so sorry.” Whitney apologized, as she ran over to the couch.

Following Whitney, Yasmin sat next to Pearl on the couch, while Whitney made herself comfortable on the floor.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you, Whit.” Yasmin admitted. “And I’m sorry for making you cry, June.” Yasmin said, tilting her head down to look at her little sister.

Pearl pressed her body closer to Yasmin, a small gesture of forgiveness.

“You have every right to be mad at me.” Whitney sighed. “I should have called and told you I was coming home late. I just got distracted.”

“Why did you stay in the city?” Yasmin asked.

“So you know how I went for that interview? The one for being an assistant for Bianca Diamond, CEO and founder of Diamond Corp.?” Whitney bragged. “Well, I went… and I got the job!”

“You did?!” Yasmin gasped, leaning forward slightly.

“I did!” Whitney exclaimed. “She likes me! This morning, she called me right as I was about to leave the hotel, and she told me I got the job! And then she asked me if I wanted to get brunch, and of course I said yes! We went to this really overpriced restaurant and got breakfast and after that, she took me shopping— let me show what I got!”

Getting up from the floor, Whitney went over to the doorway and picked up a small white bag. Walking back over to the couch, Whitney pulled a small white box from the bag and placed it onto Yasmin’s lap.

Picking up the box, Yasmin examined the logo that was printed on the front. Tilting the box to the side, Yasmin grimaced as she read the price tag.

“Don’t tell me you paid for this.” Yasmin scolded, shaking her head.

“Bianca bought it for me.” Whitney answered, sitting down on the carpet once again. “She likes me.”

Yasmin opened the box, and pulled out a small perfume bottle. “This thing is more expensive than our car bill.” Yasmin mumbled, cupping the small bottle into the palm of her hand.

“Can I see?” Bec asked, extending her hand towards Yasmin.

Pearl leaned back into the couch as they passed the bottle around, trying to avoid getting hit by one of her sisters arms.

After taking the perfume bottle from Yasmin, Bec carefully admired the small glass bottle. Uncapping the glass lid from the bottle, Bec brought the bottle up to her nose. Even though Bec hadn’t sprayed the perfume, Pearl could still smell the overpowering scent of roses.

Scrunching her nose at the smell, Bec placed the lid back on the bottle before handing it over to Yasmin, who placed the bottle back into its box.

“So,” Whitney started, taking the box of perfume from Yasmin. “My job starts next week.”

“Are you planning to drive over to Empire city every day? That’s a pretty long commute.” Bec wondered.

“Well…” Whitney took in a deep breath. “Bianca wants me to move in with her.”

“You’re going to move four hours away from us?!” Yasmin exclaimed.

“Wait, wait, wait! Before you guys complain, there might be a possibility where you can move to Empire State with me.” Whitney blurted out quickly, trying to calm Yasmin down. “When Bianca and I went to brunch, she was talking about how her business partners, Yelena and Blair Diamond, needed someone to clean their house, so I recommended you two.”

“Whitney,” Yasmin sighed. “You know we can’t do that, not with June. Who would watch her while we work? ”

“June can go to work with you guys. I’m pretty sure the Diamond’s will understand. They have a daughter around June’s age.” Whitney suggested.

“And what about Bec? She’s still in high school.”

“I know, but you have to understand that this is such a great opportunity for our family! You guys could be working for one of the richest couples in America!” Whitney pleaded. “I know we would have to move and everything, but this job can really help us financially.”

“I don’t know Whitney, I still need to think about this.” Yasmin responded.

Bec nodded her head in agreement with Yasmin. “I need some time to think about this too.”

“Okay.” Whitney said after a moment of consideration. “We can talk about this later.”

Pearl can't help but let out another big yawn, catching everyone’s attention.

“It’s way past your bedtime June, let’s put you to bed.” Yasmin smiled, turning to face June.

“I’ll bring her to bed.” Whitney offered as she got up from the ground.

Picking up Pearl from the couch, Whitney carried her little sister over to the hallway and into her and Bec’s bedroom.

“You’re starting to get heavy June-Bug.” Whitney teased, as she placed Pearl onto her bed. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Pearl replied, her voice soft and sleepy.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I never want you to feel upset because of us, okay?” Whitney said as she smoothed Pearl’s strawberry blonde hair.

Too tired to respond, Pearl only hummed in agreement.

“Goodnight June, I love you.” Whitney whispered as she placed a kiss on Pearl’s forehead.

“I love you too.” Pearl mumbled, closing her eyes.

Flicking off the lights to the room, Whitney then slowly closed the bedroom door, leaving Pearl alone in the dark.

Because of the thin walls, Pearl could hear the muffled voices of her sisters coming from the living room. Normally the noise would have bothered Pearl, but because of how tired she was, it didn’t seem as bothersome as it usually was.

So Pearl focused on the sounds of her sisters voices. And after a while of trying to distinguish Whitney’s loud voice, from Yasmin's thin voice and Bec’s soft voice, Pearl finally found sleep.


	2. Empire State Of Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yelena Davidson- Yellow Diamond  
> Blair Dorsey- Blue Diamond  
> Bianca Diamond- White Diamond

Yelena impatiently tapped her fingers against the countertop of the small cafe. She had been waiting for her order for almost fifteen minutes now because of how crowded the cafe was. The line to order went all the way to the door, making the small shop seem even more tinier. Baristas ran back and forth behind the counter trying to make orders as quickly as they possibly could.

According to the clock on the wall, her lunch break would be over in a couple minutes, which would make her late for the job interviews that she and her business partner, Bianca Diamond had scheduled for today. And one thing that Yelena had learned from working with Bianca was how much she despised people being late. 

It would be technically Bianca’s fault if Yelena arrived late, she was the one who wanted coffee in the first place. Normally, Bianca’s assistant would go out and do simple tasks like this, but she hadn’t shown up to work for the past couple days. Bianca had fired her, just like the other dozens of past assistants that couldn’t keep up to her standards. 

“Black coffee and espresso.” One of the Barista shouted as she placed the drinks onto the counter. 

Quickly claiming her drinks, Yelena placed them on a cardboard tray before promptly leaving the shop. 

Thankfully, the cafe was only a block away from the office building, but like always, the Empire City sidewalks were crowded with people. Making her way down the street, Yelena walked as fast as she possibly could without spilling her drinks. 

Stopping at the end street, Yelena waited until the light of the crosswalk told her it is safe to cross the busy street. Cars and yellow taxis whizzed by, all in a rush to go to their destinations. 

Beside her, a couple people stopped and waited for the light on the crosswalk to turn as well, all seeming just as impatient as Yelena was. Business people on their way back to their office jobs and tourists desperately waiting to explore the crowded city streets. 

When the light on the crosswalk turned, Yelena continued down the street until she reached the tallest grey office building on the street. 

As soon as Yelena entered the building, she was immediately noticed by a security guard. 

“Ms. Davidson.” The guard greeted, tilting his head upwards to Yelena. 

Giving him a quick nod in a similar fashion, Yelena continued her way over to the elevator. She had no time for small talk. 

Entering the elevator, Yelena pressed the button for the 25th floor, where Bianca’s office was located. Their business, Diamond Corporation, had two floors located in this building. The 24th floor was where most of the employees worked, including herself, and the 25th floor was often used for business meetings. 

As the doors of the elevator closed, Yelena checked her appearance on one of the mirrored walls. Bringing her free hand up to her head, Yelena ran her hand through her short dirty blonde locks, before smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles on her crisp black business suit. 

Once the elevator arrived onto the 25th floor, the elevator doors slowly opened, revealing the small waiting room packed with people. 

Yelena immediately frowned at the sight, mentality cursing at the thought of spending the entire day interviewing all of these people. 

Walking across the waiting room, Yelena made her way over to Bianca’s office. As soon as Yelena opened the office door, Bianca, who was sitting down at her desk, immediately looked up from the papers she was reading. 

Sending Yelena one of her signature smiles, Bianca signaled her to close the door.

“Oh, Yelena, where on earth would I be without you.” Bianca declared in her typical dramatic fashion. 

Letting out a small chuckle, Yelena placed the coffee tray onto her desk before taking a seat on the office chair placed right next to Bianca. 

As the two grab their drinks from the tray, the both of them took a moment to enjoy their drinks.

The two had first met when Yelena was in her first year of college. Back then, Yelena still had dreams of pursuing a career in science, something ambitious for a woman in an Ivy League college, like Harvard, at the time. 

Yelena had a knack for numbers, and though the difficult mathematical equations used in chemical equations, she found her love for chemistry. She had often pictured herself in a long lab coat, with safety goggles and gloves, discovering the next new element, making a new ground breaking discovery. Often this vision would help her push through the constant pushback she would face. 

While it was a great accomplishment to be one of the few women in the science department, it also felt like a setback. Most of her professors refused to take her seriously, assuming she was some fragile blonde who needed to be guided like a child through chemical labs and lectures. 

Yelena was determined to prove that she deserved to be taken seriously. She had to not only fight for herself, but for the women that would come after her. That year Yelena would prove her point by being at the top of her class, earning all straight A’s along with a full ride scholarship. 

Yelena fought hard to pave her way in the science department, at least until she met Bianca. 

One day as Yelena was leaving one of her chemistry classes, she noticed a woman in her late twenties, dressed much too nicely to be a student, standing outside the building. As soon as Bianca had spotted her, she immediately walked up to Yelena and struck up a conversation. 

“Yelena Davidson?” The woman had asked, her plump dark lips stretched into a knowing smile. 

As Yelena nodded in response, she wondered how this stranger could possibly know who she was. 

“I heard a lot about you, Yelena. Especially about how smart you are.” The woman had commented, extending her hand towards Yelena. “I’m Bianca Diamond.” 

Shifting her heavy textbook to her right side, Yelena had grabbed and shook Bianca’s pale hand. 

Bianca had then offered to take Yelena to dinner, and there she discussed how she had been looking for someone to start a business with her and how she thought Yelena seemed like the perfect person to help her do that. With the money that Bianca had inherited from her family, she had planned to create a business based on technology, Diamond Corp.

After learning about Yelena’s extensive knowledge about math, Bianca had confirmed her suspicions about Yelena being the right business partner and immediately offered her the position of Chief Financial Officer on the spot. 

Yelena was of course extremely hesitant. How could she accept a position in a company that didn’t exist? Yelena would have to change her major to finance and leave behind her chemistry courses, a subject she truly loved. 

It all seemed incredibly risky, but Yelena stayed open minded. After taking a couple days to consider Bianca’s proposal, something in Yelena gut told her this was a risk worth taking. 

So after careful consideration, Yelena took the position. And in the end, all of the risks they made all worked out perfectly. Diamond Corp was extremely successful, with no signs of slowing down soon. 

“Yelena,” Bianca placed her coffee down onto the table. “Can you call the first person in for the interview?” 

Getting up from her seat, Yelena placed her coffee cup down and grabbed the clipboard with the paper with the interviewees names attached to it. 

Heading over to the waiting room, Yelena pushed the office door open as she scanned the paper. Squinting down at the tiny font, Yelena called out the first name on the list. “John Hessonite?” 

Taking a quick glance around the waiting room, not a single person in the room moved. 

Recognizing the name as a current employee working in the office, Yelena doesn’t bother to call out his name again. He should know by now how things worked around here. 

Looking down at the paper once again, Yelena called out the next name. “Blair Dorsey?”

A woman in the corner of the room immediately stands up at the sound of her name. She was dressed in business casual clothing, a navy blue pencil skirt, and a white button up blouse. Her black stilettos loudly tapped against the floor with every step she took towards Yelena. 

“Blair.” The woman greeted with a smile, extending her hand towards Yelena. 

Taking Blair’s hand, Yelena gave her a firm handshake. “Yelena.” 

Entering the office, Blair’s wavy light brown swayed behind her as she went over to greet Bianca. Following her into the office, Yelena closed the door shut behind them. 

Leaning over Bianca’s desk to give her a handshake, the hem of Blair’s skirt rides up slightly, showing a small bit of the back of her thighs. 

Averting her eyes away from Blair, Yelena scolded herself as she tried to erase the image of Blair’s hips from her brain. 

_You shouldn’t have been staring in the first place._ Yelena thought to herself as she walked back over and took her seat next to Bianca. 

“You can sit.” Bianca announced, motioning over to Blair with the flick of her hand. 

Blair takes her seat as directed, gently placing the manila folder she was holding onto her lap. 

Taking the clipboard from Yelena, Bianca took a couple seconds to review the information printed on the paper. 

“Yelena, the schedule says we were supposed to interview someone else at this time.” Bianca pointed out as she tapped her long painted nail to clipboard.

“He wasn’t there, so I called the next person.” Yelena explained. 

Humming in response, Bianca turned to face Blair. “Well it’s a good thing you arrived early. Can we see your resume?” 

Opening up her manila folder, Blair took out two copies of her resume before handing them over to the two business partners.

As Yelena was reading through her copy of the resume, she noticed Blair carefully watching her. Looking up from her paper, the two made eye contact for a split second. Hazel eyes meeting Blair’s baby blues. 

Forcing her eyes away, Yelena forced herself to ignore the flustered feelings rising in her chest by turning her attention back over to Blair’s resume.

“Interesting.” Bianca said after placing Blair’s resume into her desk. “As you can see, there are a lot of people interested in this position. What makes you qualified for this job?” 

Without a wasting another second, Blair begins her perfectly calculated response to Bianca’s question. She was clearly confident in her answer, her voice smooth and steady. 

Blair’s voice was naturally soft and light like silk, and the more time she spent talking, Yelena could pick up a slight trace of an accent. 

_Irish, perhaps?_ Yelena thought to herself as she focused on the curvature of Blair’s full lips. She also had pretty lips… 

As soon the thought enters her mind, Yelena could feel her face starting to get hot. Pulling her eyes away from Blair, Yelena needed a couple seconds to compose herself. Focusing her attention on Bianca’s desk, Yelena stared at the date of today’s newspaper. August 31st 1981. 

“Yelena, would you like to ask Blair any questions?” Bianca, questioned as she turned towards her business partner. 

Yelena cleared her throat before answering “No.” She said much more bluntly than she had attended to. 

“Well, that’s the end of her interview.” Bianca promptly concluded. “It was very nice to meet you Blair.” 

“It was nice to meet you two as well.” Blair smiled as she leaned over to give Bianca another handshake. 

After pulling away from Bianca, Blair extended her hand over to Yelena. Taking Blair’s hand, Yelena scolded herself once again for behaving so unprofessionally during this interview. 

Once Blair had exited the room, the two of them began to discuss their opinion of her interview.

“I think Blair would be the perfect candidate for this position. With her background in advertisement and business, she has the potential to become a valuable asset to our company.” Bianca recalled, as she looked over Blair’s resume. 

Yelena nodded, as she looked through the glass office door and into the waiting room, where Blair was standing near the elevator, waiting for the doors to open. 

“I think she’s perfect too.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate all of your comments and I hope you all are enjoying this fanfic! 
> 
> It’s crazy how I began this fanfic almost a year ago and I’m finally posting for you all to see now!


	3. The Diamonds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Just a little FYI: all chapters from Pearl’s perseptive will be in the present (the late 80s), while all the Diamond chapters will happening in the past (the early 80s)

Staring outside the window of her family’s small car, Pearl watched as cars and trucks passed by their car, all driving in a similar pace down the long straight highway. 

Pearl and her sisters were driving down to Empire State, where Yasmin and Bec were going to have a job interview with the Diamonds. After taking some time consider the opportunity, both of her sisters decided taking the job would be the best option for their family. 

The car had been silent for most of the ride. Occasionally, Yasmin, who was in the driver's seat, would ask Bec about directions from the road map that she had laid across her lap. 

Both Whitney and Pearl sat in the backseat of the car. For most of the trip, Whitney had her eyes closed like if she was trying to take a nap, but Pearl knew she was still awake by how often she was moving. 

Being trapped in her car seat for almost five hours straight was starting to make Pearl feel uncomfortable. As much as Pearl loved the dress she was wearing, the tulle material that underlined the skirt of her dress was starting to make her legs feel itchy. Yasmin had bought this dress for Pearl to wear at their job interview, specifically to make a good first impression with the Diamonds. 

At first Pearl was excited to have a new dress. Her sisters rarely bought clothes for Pearl, most of her clothing were hand me downs from Bec. Yasmin had brought Pearl with her to the department store and together they chose the dress Pearl was wearing today, a flowy dress with blue sleeves, a yellow bodice and pink skirt. 

Pearl’s sisters also had dressed for the occasion as well. Whitney, Yasmin and Bec all wore their nicest professional clothing, almost as if what they were wearing was the most important part of the job interview. 

Letting out a quiet sigh, Pearl looked over to the windshield, where in the horizon, was a bridge that crossed a large body of water. Wanting her Whitney to see the view as well, Pearl reached over and tapped her sister’s arm. 

Opening her eyes at the sudden touch, Whitney turned to face Pearl. “What’s the matter June?” 

“We’re gonna cross a bridge!” Pearl beamed, clearly excited to see the pretty view of the water. 

“Hmm?” Whitney straightened herself up as she looked over to the horizon. “Oh yeah, that’s the Empire River.”

As the car made its way over to the bridge, Pearl sat as tall as she possibly could as she admired the scenic view of the water glittering in the sun. 

“Look, June! There’s a boat!” Whitney exclaimed as she pointed to the window on her side of the car. 

Craning her neck towards the other window, Pearl tried to see what her sister was looking at, but because of the restraints of her car seat and her height, all she could see was the infrastructure of the bridge. Frowning, Pearl slumped back into her car seat. She wished she could have been as tall as sisters. 

Noticing her disappointment, Whitney placed her hand on Pearl’s shoulder. 

“When I was in Empire City, I saw this _huge_ bridge.” Whitney exaggerated. “Maybe one day I’ll take you to see it.”

Pearl’s smile immediately returned to her face. “Really?” 

“Of course, silly.” Whitney giggled as she smoothed Pearl’s hair. 

In the passenger seat of the car, Bec lifted up the map from her legs, and began to trace her finger across the line that represented the interstate they were traveling on. 

“Yasmin,” Bec called to get her sister’s attention. “We get off at the next exit.” 

Glancing over to one of the green signs by the side of the road, Yasmin turned to face Bec for a quick second. “Exit 20?” 

“Yes, exit 20.” Bec repeated with a nod as she went to go double checked the map. 

At the end of the bridge, Yasmin turned onto the exit, bringing the car off the interstate and to their destination, the city of Homeville. 

Driving down the town's main road, their car passed by houses, business and neighborhoods that made up the sleepy town. The small city was situated right next to the Empire river, and from the road they were driving on, Pearl could see glimpses of the shining river peeking through the trees. 

Once they had traveled to the end of the town, Yasmin made a right turn onto a hidden road, practically covered by the trees from the woods. They could have easily driven right past it if they hadn’t paid attention to where they were going. 

Embedded inside the woods that surrounded the small side road, were some of the biggest houses Pearl had ever seen. Every single house on the street had a massive amount of cleared out land, with plenty of trees surrounding the properties to help spread out the houses from being too close to one another.

Traveling to the end of the side road, Bec instructed Yasmin to turn on the next street to their left. Driving down the dead end street, the family’s car approached the second to last house on the street, before pulling into the long circular driveway.

Just like all the other houses on the street, the two story home in the center of the circular driveway was just as enormous. The house had large sleek windows with a light grey siding and the land surrounding it was neatly landscaped. A thick blanket of trees lined the border of property, and beyond that was the uncharted woods.

“We’re early.” Yasmin announced as she parked the car at the side of the driveway. “But I suppose it’s better to be early than late.” 

As her sisters got out of the car, Pearl unbuckled the straps of her car seat before climbing out the car door. Once Pearl had exited the car, Yasmin immediately rushed over and began to smooth out the wrinkles in Pearl’s skirt. 

“This place is huge!” Whitney exclaimed, as she took a step towards the house. “Imagine living in a place like this?”

Yasmin rolled her eyes as she reached for Pearl’s hand. “Come on guys, let go.” 

Pushing their way past Whitney and Bec, Yasmin led Pearl across the driveway and up the set of stairs that lead up to the front. 

“Stop being so uptight, Yas.” Whitney began as she and Bec followed them up the stairs. 

“ _I’m_ trying to be professional.” Yasmin quipped. “So shut up.”

Before Whitney could snap back with a rebuttal, Yasmin reached over and pressed the doorbell, sending a chime into the air. 

The door creaked open only a few seconds later, revealing a lady with long brown hair, dressed in a blue cocktail dress. Beside her stood an equally tall, short haired blonde woman, dressed in a yellow button up blouse with black dress pants. 

“Are you the Pearls?” The woman dressed in blue asked, 

“Yes, yes we are.” Yasmin immediately answered, a forced, nervous smile appearing onto her face. 

After taking a moment to study the girls outside, the lady dressed in blue glanced over to the blonde lady next to her, before stepping away from the door.

“Come inside.” She welcomed with a smile, as she gestured for the sisters to enter the house. 

Upon entering into the house’s enormous foyer, Pearl realized she had never been to a place bigger than this room. A sitting area with a couch and television was at the right side of the room, and to the far left, was a large staircase leading up to the second floor of the house. 

Pearl hadn’t even seen the entire house yet, but somehow she already knew that every room would be just as overtop as this one. Just the sheer amount of space in this house made Pearl wonder if people could get lost in their own homes. 

“I’m Blair Diamond.” The lady in blue introduced. “And this is my partner Yelena Diamond.” 

Beside Blair, Yelena Diamond gave a curt nod in what was supposed to be a greeting. Pearl could already tell she was much more serious and intimidating than her counterpart. 

“I’m Yasmin, this is Rebecca and Whitney.” Yasmin pointed to each sister as she introduced them. “And this is June.” 

Blair Diamond gave a warm smile to Pearl. “June? That means your birthday was sometime last month.” 

Now nervous from suddenly being thrown into the spotlight, Pearl turned her attention to the shiny hardwood floors. 

“Yes,” Yasmin had answered for her. “She just turned five a couple weeks ago.”

“Our daughter, Pink, just turned five in April.” Blair stated as she clasped her hands together. 

Yelena gave a brief nod to her partner. “We’ve heard that one of you is working for Bianca.”

Whitney raised her hand. “Yes, that’s me.” 

Yelena raised an eyebrow as she inspected Whitney's appearance. “Good luck with that.” She scoffed. 

“Thanks?” Whitney shrugged her shoulders as she responded with a nervous giggle. 

“Anyways,” Blair cleared her throat as she changed the conversation. “Your job is to cook, clean and watch over our daughter while we’re working.”

“I’ve been working from home ever since I gave birth to Pink.” Blair continued. “I didn’t expect to work from home for so long… but now I decided it would be best for me to return to the office. 

As Blair was talking, Pearl could notice that she was visibly upset by the tone of voice and how watery her eyes were getting. Yelena had seemed to notice as well, and had gently placed her hand onto Blair’s shoulder.

“How about we give you a tour of our house?” Yelena suggested. 

“Yes.” Blair nodded as she quickly composed herself. “That way you can become more familiar with the house.”

“That would be nice.” Yasmin agreed. 

“So, this is the foyer.” Blair introduced, motioning over towards the living area. Turning around, Blair began to walk over to the center of the room, causing everyone to follow her.

“That door leads you to the basement, where the laundry room and the wine cellar is.” Blair explained as she pointed over to the door underneath the staircase. 

Continuing across the room, Blair stopped near the hallway at the end of the room. “Over here is where our guest bedrooms are. Yelena’s office and our exercise room is down here, as well.”

“Over here is our dining room.” Blair announced as the group entered the room.

In the center of the spacious dining room, was a huge dinner room table, clearly meant for a large crowd. A crystal chandelier hung over the table, scattering flexs of light across the room from the sunlight that peaked in from the glass sliding door. Outside in the backyard was a paved patio, along with a gated pool. 

“Outside there is the pool, the garage and the guest house— that’s where you’ll be staying.” Yelena acknowledged.

Blair nodded before turning back to her tour. “And over here is our—” The sound of a loud crash coming from upstairs, suddenly cuts Blair off mid-sentence. 

“…Kitchen.” Blair finished a moment later. “How about we go upstairs?” She suggested before quickly making her way over to the stairs. 

Following Blair and Yelena up the stairs, Pearl and her sisters followed the two into the first door to the left of the hallway.

On the floor sat a girl around Pearl’s age, surrounded by toy blocks scattered across the hardwood floor. Behind her, a plastic chair was pressed against the wall, underneath a high shelf filled with buckets of toys. 

The girl's eyes go wide upon seeing her parents enter the room. Quickly scooping up the blocks from the floor, the girl dumped them into the green bucket in front of them. 

“Pink!” Blair hissed as she crouched down to pick the remaining toys on the floor. Placing the bucket back on the shelf, Blair dragged both the chair and Pink back to the circular table in the center of the room.

“You’re not supposed to be playing, you’re supposed to be reading.” Blair scolded as she sat Pink back onto the chair. 

“Mommy, I don’t wanna read!” Pink pouted as she crossed her arms around her chest. 

Across the room, Yelena shot a glare at her daughter, a silent warning for her to stop misbehaving. 

“This is Pink’s playroom.” Blair resumed as if nothing had happened. “If you want your sister can stay here while we finish the rest of the tour. 

Looking up to Yasmin, Pearl squeezed her sister’s hand, her silent way of begging her sister not to leave her alone in this unfamiliar place.

“Sure.” Yasmin agreed, completely missing, or ignoring, all the signs Pearl tried to telepathically send to her. 

Bringing Pearl over to the table in the center of the room, Yasmin pulled out a seat for Pearl to sit on the opposite side of the table from Pink. 

“Be good.” Yasmin whispered just loud enough for only Pearl to hear, before returning back to her sisters and the Diamonds. 

“Pink’s playroom is also connected to her bedroom.” Blair explained as she walked over to the right side of the room. Opening the door that connected the two rooms together, Blair guided the group into Pink’s room. 

Whitney, who is the last one to enter, gave Pearl a smile right before she closed the door shut, leaving the two girls alone in the room all by themselves.

Pearl faced the girl sitting across from her, who seemed to practically radiate with joy as she began to introduce herself. “I’m Pink! What’s your name?” 

“June.” She shyly answered. “But you call me Pearl if you want.”

“Okay!” Pink exclaimed. “Do you want to color?”

Pearl nodded. “Sure.”

Jumping up from her seat, Pink ran over to the small bookshelf in the corner and grabbed a coloring book from one of the shelfs. Heading back over to the table, Pink placed the book onto the table before dragging the plastic chair she was sitting on, over to the shelf on to the wall. 

Climbing onto the chair, Pink stood on her tippy toes as reached for the purple bucket on the shelf. 

Pearl can’t help but notice how over the top Pink was dressed. She was wearing a puffy brightly colored pink dress to match her namesake, with white stockings and ballet flats that perfectly matched her dress. 

As Pink continued to reach for the purple bucket, something tucked behind her short brown curls gleamed in the room's artificial light. Upon further inspection, Pearl noticed that she had small diamond studded earrings attached to her earlobes. She already had her ears pierced.

Finally grabbing on to the purple bucket, Pink tipped forward, causing her to spill some crayons onto the floor, as she waved her arms into the air to keep her balance. 

Once Pink was steady, she then proceeded to hop off of the chair before bending down to pick up the fallen crayons off of the ground. 

Dragging her chair back to her table, Pink sat down and placed the bucket on to the center of the table. “Rip out the one you want.” She explained as she slid the coloring book towards Pearl. 

Looking through the color book, Pearl flipped through the pages until she found a page that wasn’t scribbled on. After carefully tearing out the page from the coloring book, Pearl handed the book back over to Pink. 

Pink took time to find her to find a picture she wanted to color in. Flipping through the colored in pages of her book, Pink would occasionally stop and admire her previous works. 

By the amount of drawings pinned along the walls of the playroom, it seemed like Pink was interested in art. All along the light pink walls of the playroom, various pieces of art were neatly thumbtacked to the wall, like if they were all precious paintings hanging in a museum. 

Finally deciding on a picture, Pink ripped out the page in one swift motion, accidentally tearing off one of the corners of the in the process. 

Pearl waited for Pink to grab crayons out of the bucket before grabbing her own. Looking through the bucket of worn down nubs of crayon, Pearl grabbed a yellow crayon that wasn’t as small as the rest. 

“Are those girls your mommys?” Pink asked as she scribbled her crayon across the paper.

Pearl shook her head as she gently shaded in one of the flowers in her picture, “No, they’re my sisters.” 

“Oh,” Pink briefly paused before speaking again. “Are they the ones that are going to cook and clean? Are you going to stay with them?” 

“Yeah—” 

“Yay!” Pink cheered, cutting off Pearl with her overwhelmingly loud voice. “When you move we can play in the pool— or we can ride our bikes in the driveway! I got a bike for my birthday and I know how to ride it without the training wheels!” 

Pearl tried her best to follow along with Pink, as she continued to ramble about all the things they could do together now that Pearl was moving. As much as she tried to keep focus, Pink’s ongoing tangent was so fast paced it made Pearl’s brain run in circles.

Thankfully the door to the playroom opened a few minutes later, cutting what could have been a long discussion short. Waiting at the door frame was Yelena Diamond and Yasmin, who were both ready to call the girls.

Jumping up from her seat at the sight of her mother, Pink ran over and gave Yelena a huge hug. “Mama!” 

Picking her daughter up, Yelena smoothed down some of Pink’s defiant curls. “Have been good?” She asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

Pink, of course, nodded and told her mother about how they played nicely while she was gone. 

Standing up from the table, Pearl placed her crayons back into the bucket before going over to Yasmin. The four of them then headed downstairs, where Blair, Whitney and Bec are all waiting for them by the foyer, 

“Thank you once again, for this opportunity.” Yasmin acknowledged. “We have a long drive home, so it would be best if we head out.” 

“It was very nice to meet you all.” Blair smiled. “Have a safe drive home.”

“If you have any more questions, you know where to call.” Yelena added, while Pink waved goodbye to the group from her mother’s arms. 

After exchanging a round of quick goodbyes, the sisters left the house and made their way back into their car in silence. While Pearl’s sisters were quiet now, the ride home would be anything but silent. Once the car hit the highway, conversation would bloom about the family’s new future involving their jobs. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was little I always loved going on long road trips and I would always get weirdly exited excited to cross bridges. 
> 
> But know bridges give me anxiety so that’s fun
> 
> Thanks for reading once again!


	4. Reverie

Walking over to the elevator at the end of the parking garage of her office building, Yelena hit the elevator button with one of her gloved fingers before waiting for the doors to open. Once the elevator doors parted a few seconds later, Yelena entered into the elevator and pressed the button for the office floor. 

The elevator only managed to travel up one floor before stopping once again. Moving over to the corner of the elevator, Yelena expected a large crowd to enter when the doors would open, but to her surprise, only one person was waiting behind the elevator doors.

And that person being, was Blair Dorsey.

By now, it had been several months since Blair had started working at the office, and since then, the two had only interacted only a handful of times. Yelena had made a point to avoid interacting with her, not because she disliked Blair, but because quite the opposite, Yelena had developed a small crush on her. 

Blair was just so intimidatingly beautiful that Yelena always found herself being anything but composed around her presence. Yelena hated feeling so out of control of her emotions, so to avoid being seen as a fool, Yelena just flat out ignored Blair all together, unless their work forced them to collaborate with each other. 

Entering into the elevator, Blair sent a smile over to Yelena, who tried her best to give a casual nod in return. Yelena could feel her face heat up from the gesture, making her thankful for the cold that already flushed her cheeks.

Looking down at her hands, Yelena pulled off her gloves from her clammy hands and stuffed them into her pockets. She could feel nervous butterflies that formed in her stomach, now squeezing at her lungs. The silence between the two felt incredibly awkward, and Yelena desperately wanted to remove herself from the situation. 

“It’s freezing outside.” Blair said, clearly trying to engage in some form of small talk. “I heard it might snow tonight.”

“Maybe upstate.” Yelena countered, with not a single hint of nervousness in her voice, even though it secretly overtook her body. 

Blair hummed and the elevator went silent once again. The elevator would go up two floors before she would speak again.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a while now.” Blair began as she turned to face Yelena. “I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me? There’s this restaurant not too far from where I live, and I figured I could invite you… if you aren’t busy.”

Yelena could only blink as she took a second to fully understand what Blair had said to her. She definitely wasn’t expecting Blair to ask her to dinner, her mind just naturally assumed that she would ask her something work related. 

“Sure.” Yelena answered a few moments later. “I’m available this weekend.”

“Great!” Blair exclaimed, her pretty smile returning to her face. “How does Saturday at six sound?”

“That works.” Yelena agreed, flicking her eyes nervously away from Blair once she felt her face warm up again.

The elevator suddenly dings, alerting the two that they have arrived at their designated floor. Once the elevator doors part open, Yelena lets Blair exit the elevator first before exiting herself.

“I’ll see you on Saturday then.” Blair nodded, sending Yelena one last smile, before heading over to her office. 

Yelena stood frozen by the elevator, as she took a moment to process what had happened between the two. Finally snapping out of her trance a few minutes later, Yelena realized she had been standing by the elevator for an unusual amount of time. Quickly regaining her usual composure, Yelena made her way over to her office, scolding herself for acting so strange around Blair. 

  
  


_____

Yelena ran her hands through her slightly damp hair, styling her dirty blonde locks into its usual gelled up hairstyle. After her hair was styled to her liking, Yelena ran her hands under the bathroom sink to wash the hair gel from her hand.

As Yelena wiped her hands dry on the front of her pants, she took a second to double check her appearance in the mirror. She was wearing a simple pale yellow button up shirt, along with a pair of black work pants. Yelena had originally planned to wear one of her thick oversized blazers as well, but decided against it at the last minute once she realized it would make her look too formal, like she was going to one of Bianca’s fancy parties instead of a casual dinner. 

Exiting the bathroom, Yelena patted both her pockets, checking for her wallet and car keys. Finding that both were tucked into her pockets, Yelena pulled on her coat before leaving her apartment. 

The car ride to the restaurant wasn’t as long as Yelena expected, the evening traffic had died down exponentially, making the trip across the city a lot more tolerable. 

Pulling into the restaurant’s small parking lot, Yelena parked her car in the first available parking lot she spotted. Exiting the car, Yelena entered the restaurant, only to find the waiting area packed with people.

Searching through the crowd of people, Yelena found no sign of Blair around the room. Assuming that Blair hadn’t arrived yet, Yelena approached the hostess stand to reserve a table.

“How many?” The hostess behind the stand asked. 

“Two.” Yelena answered as she searched around the room. “I’m waiting for another person.” 

“Do you happen to be waiting for a…” The hostess squinted down at the list of reservations. “Ms. Dorsey?”

“Yes.” Yelena confirmed with a nod. 

“She is already seated.” The hostess informed. “Let me bring you to where she is.” 

Grabbing a menu, The hostess then escorted Yelena into the dining room and over to the area where Blair was seated. 

At the sight of Yelena walking over towards the table, a warm smile lit up on Blair’s face. Standing up from her seat to greet Yelena, Blair was dressed in a mid-length navy colored cocktail dress, along with a pair of silver strappy heels.

Blair wore a classic shade of red lipstick, which was different from what she would wear on a daily basis at the office. Yelena thought the color suited her, the ruby red color highlighted the soft curves of her full lips. Even though every part of Blair looked stunning, there was something about her lips that made the dormant butterflies inside Yelena’s chest flutter once again. 

“You look… nice.” Yelena blurted once she had reached the table. 

“Thank you.” Blair beamed as the two took their seats, clearly flattered by Yelena’s words. “You look very nice as well.”

As Yelena racked her brain for a response, one of the waiters approached their table, saving Yelena from looking like a complete idiot. 

“Hello ladies, I’m Thomas, and I’ll be your server today. Can I start you off with a complimentary sample of wine?” The waiter stated as he held up a bottle of red wine.

“Why not?” Yelena agreed with a shrug, as she slid one of the empty wine glasses over to the waiter. Wine would be the perfect thing to calm her nerves. 

Blair placed her own wine glass towards the waiter as well, who filled up both of their glasses with a small amount of wine.

Bringing the glass up to her lips, Yelena downed the entire sample. “We’ll take the bottle.” Yelena declared, setting her wine glass down with a _clink_. 

Taking a tiny sip of her own of wine, Blair's face scrunched up in disgust at the bitter taste. Sliding her lipstick stained wine glass away from her, Blair turned to face the waiter. 

“Can I please get an iced tea?” She asked, earning a nod from the waiter, who quickly scribbled down Blair’s order onto a notepad. 

Once the waiter had moved away from their table, Yelena filled up her glass with more wine, taking another huge sip before turning her attention to the menu in front of her. 

The two sat in silence, flipping through the restaurant’s menu, until the waiter came back to the table to take their orders. Once their orders had been taken, their menus had been taken away as well, leaving them with no choice but to fill the awkward silence with conversation. 

The two began to talk about the only thing they seemingly had in common with each other— work. While Blair was definitely more engaged in their conversation, Yelena would occasionally comment about a certain topic between her sips of wine. 

After a while, Yelena could feel the wine kick in and help relax her overly tense nerves. When she was almost finished with her first drink, Yelena poured more wine into her glass. It wouldn’t take long for her to go through her second glass, in less than twenty minutes, Yelena would find herself pouring herself another glass. 

As Blair continued to talk about something along the lines of her work project, Yelena could feel herself starting to zone out. Instead of focusing on what Blair was saying, Yelena found herself studying the features of Blair’s face. 

Blair’s wide blue eyes seemed to light up whenever she was talking about something she was clearly passionate about. Her nose would also crinkle in the cutest way whenever she would laugh. And her lips… 

It only took a couple seconds for Yelena to realize Blair’s demeanor had quickly changed throughout the couple minutes she had zoned out. Now quiet, Blair pressed her lips together as she glared over at Yelena. Her blue eyes were now narrowed and laced with annoyance, showing she knew Yelena hadn’t paid attention to what she had said. 

The two ate their meals in silence. The tension that had risen between the two felt excruciating painful, and Yelena tried to ignore it by taking more sips of her wine. If the wine could control her nerves, then it could help Yelena push down her feelings of guilt. 

Yelena wanted to apologize to Blair, she wanted to let her know that it wasn't her intention to seem disinterested, but her tipsy brain couldn’t find the right words to say out loud. So in fear of looking like a complete fool, Yelena thought it was better to stay silent than to say anything at all. 

When the waiter delivered their check to the table, Yelena paid for both meals despite Blair insisting that she should pay for her own meal. She hoped that paying the check would count as a silent apology, after all the bill was pretty pricey because of that bottle of wine…

Finishing the last sip of drink, Yelena reached for the wine bottle once again, only for Blair to move it out of her reach. 

“I think you’ve had enough.” Blair declared, finally breaking the silence between the two. 

Yelena rolled her eyes. “I’m completely fine.” 

Besides the small headache starting to form around her temples, Yelena felt fine for the most part. It usually took a lot for Yelena to get drunk and a couple of small glasses of wine wasn’t going to do anything to her. 

“How did you get here?” Blair asked. “Did you take a taxi?” 

“I drove here.” Yelena answered as she pushed her wine glass almost to the edge of the table. 

“I guess that means I have to drive you home.” Blair sighed, annoyance clear in her tone. 

“You don’t have to.” Yelena insisted. “I’m perfectly capable of driving myself home.” 

“Yelena!” Blair hissed. “You cannot drive yourself home! You’re drunk!” 

“I am _not_ drunk.” Yelena countered, earning a dark glare from Blair. 

“I’m done with this.” Blair demanded as she stood up from her seat. “Let’s leave.”

Walking away from their table, Blair didn’t even wait for Yelena to get up from her seat before storming towards the restaurant's exit. Following Blair, Yelena’s head spun as she tried to keep up with Blair’s fast pace. _How on earth could she walk so fast with high heels?_

Finally catching up with Blair in the parking lot, Yelena led Blair over to where her car was parked in the now almost empty parking lot. 

“Keys.” Blair held out her hand towards Yelena, clearly asking for her to give up her car keys. 

As much as Yelena wanted to prove that she was sober enough to drive her own car, she also wasn’t in the mood to argue with Blair. Reluctantly pulling her car keys from her pocket, Yelena dropped them into Blair's hand. 

Unlocking the car, Blair entered the driver’s seat, while Yelena had no choice but to sit in the passenger’s seat. After pulling on her seatbelt, Yelena crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Blair start the car.

After taking a second to inspect the controls of the car, Blair placed one hand on the steering wheel and the other at the gear shift. Pushing the gear shift forward, Blair stepped her foot on the gas, launching the car forward. 

Clearly panicked by the car's sudden movement, Blair quickly slammed her foot on the brake. Taking a moment to compose herself, Blair placed both her hands on the wheel to steady herself.

“I know what I’m doing.” She said out loud, almost as if she was trying to convince herself more than Yelena. 

Yelena furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you sure about that?”

Ignoring Yelena’s remark, Blair managed to pull the car out of the parking lot and onto the city streets. While she was able to drive somewhat steadily on the road, Blair drove at an unnaturally slow pace. She was clearly an inexperienced driver, Yelena could tell by how nervous she seemed on the road. 

“Turn right.” Yelena instructed, pointing over to the road Blair needed to turn on. 

Nodding, Blair did as Yelena said and turned onto the street without putting her turn signal on. A car horn behind them blared, practically making Blair jump out of her skin.

“Sorry!” Blair apologized, even though the person behind them wouldn’t be able to hear her.

Yelena began to pinch the bridge of her nose. She had truly made a mistake in letting Blair drive her car. 

“I can tell you don’t drive often.” 

“I don’t.” Blair sheepishly admitted. “I haven’t driven a car since I was nineteen.”

“How old are you now?” Yelena questioned.

“Twenty-two.” Blair softly replied.

“What twenty-two year old doesn’t know how to drive?” Yelena laughed, her words sounding much more ruder than intended. 

Blair’s face reddened as she slumped into the driver’s seat. Blinking more than usual, Blair gripped on the steering wheel so hard, that her knuckles began to turn white.

The rest of the drive was mostly quiet, except for Yelena occasionally pointing out the directions to her apartment building. Once the two had reached Yelena’s apartment building, Blair pulled into the parking area and parked the car in one of the empty spots.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Yelena was glad they had made it home without getting pulled over by the cops, or worse, getting into a car accident. 

Unbuckling her seatbelt, Yelena stumbled on her own feet as she got out of the car. Once Yelena had successfully regained some of her balance, she glanced back over to Blair, who exited the car with much more grace than she did. 

“Here.” Blair said as she approached Yelena with her car keys. Blair tucked the keys into Yelena’s open palm, both of their fingers brushing together for a split second.

Blair eyed the apartment building. “Let’s go inside, it’s freezing.”

“You don’t have to come inside.” Yelena suggested. “I can go to my apartment by myself.”

Ignoring Yelena once again, Blair rolled her eyes before making her way towards the entrance of the apartment building. Following after her, Yelena stumbled as she tried to keep up with Blair. 

Once the two entered the building, they both headed straight into the elevator, where Yelena pressed the button for her apartment floor. After a few minutes of waiting in the elevator, the two arrived on the 13th floor. Walking out of the elevator, Yelena led Blair over to where her apartment was. 

Unlocking the door to her apartment, Yelena flicked on the lights as she entered. Instead of following Yelena inside, Blair stood by the doorframe.

“I should go.” Blair explained as she pointed towards the hallway.

Yelena found herself nodding in agreement, but as soon Blair turned to leave, she immediately reached out to grab Blair’s hand. 

“Wait!” Yelena cried out, causing Blair to turn back around.

Ignoring the confused look on Blair's face, Yelena glanced over to their interlocked hands before her eyes settled on Blair’s lips. 

Her mouth was slightly parted, and in the center of her lips, her red lipstick had faded from eating and drinking. Yelena found herself having a strong impulse to kiss them, so without thinking, Yelena planted a sloppy kiss on Blair's lips.

Immediately pulling away from Yelena, Blair let out a loud gasp as she backed into the hallway. Like a deer caught in headlights, Blair froze, only moving to bring her fingers up to her lips.

In shock of her own actions, Yelena stood frozen for as well, staring back at Blair with equally as wide eyes. When her actions finally sunk in a few moments later, Yelena immediately panicked and slammed her apartment door shut. 

Taking a couple steps back, Yelena stared at her front door, the memory of Blair just a few moments prior burned into her head.

“What the hell did you just do?!” Yelena found herself whispering to herself. 

A part of herself was in denial, the other part of Yelena was extremely angry for even allowing herself to do something like that in the first place.

It was wrong. It was wrong to kiss Blair like that. Yelena knew what it was like to be at the opposite end of an unwanted kiss, and all the anger that came with it. Yelena should have never copied that behavior, and being drunk wasn’t an excuse. 

Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror she had hung on the entranceway of her apartment, Yelena’s lips were stained a reddish pink. 

Walking up to the mirror, Yelena began to scrub at her lips, trying to remove the color from her lips, only to smear the color across her face even further.

Storming away in defeat, Yelena plopped herself on to her couch and buried her hands into her face. Her small headache from earlier had turned into a full blown migraine. 

Besides being angry, Yelena was mostly disappointed in herself. She should have never said yes to that dinner in the first place, it only added fuel to a fire that wasn’t meant to burn. 

Now Yelena was left with the consequences of her actions, with one of them being, accidentally outing herself to someone at her workplace.

While outing herself to Blair under any other circumstances would be equally as terrifying, her being an employee at Diamond Corp made the situation more horrible for Yelena. She had made Blair beyond angry tonight, and if she truly wanted to, Blair could head straight to Bianca’s office on Monday morning and have her fired. 

It wasn’t uncommon for people to be fired based on their sexuality. Yelena had heard plenty of stories. But now that reality of it seemed possible, Yelena was truly terrified. 

From the moment she and Bianca started the company, Yelena had poured every fiber of her being into her work, including blood, sweat and tears. If she were to lose everything, she would be devastated beyond repair. 

With everything on the line, Yelena's future now laid in Blair’s hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m almost 18 years old and I still don’t know how to drive a car. I’m already failing at being an almost adult.


	5. Settling In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like long chapters

The three of them sat on the floor of Bec and Pearl’s bedroom, packing away the contents of their room. While Yasmin sorted through Pearl's clothes, Bec was busy packing all of her artwork and art supplies. Pearl helped with the packing as well, placing all of her toys into her backpack. 

In the chaos of moving, the entire house had rearranged itself overnight. Boxes were scattered over every surface of the house, either marked keep or donate. Furniture stood around the house in random places, ready to be moved into the moving van and taken to a second hand store. Most of the hard work of moving had already been done, leaving the family of four left with the simple tasks of packing their clothing and personal items.

Picking up her teddy bear from the pile of toys that still needed to be packed, Pearl forced the stuffed animal into her bag, which was already packed to the brim. Looking down at the pile of toys still on the floor, Pearl realized that she wasn’t going to have enough room to fit all of them into her backpack. 

Unsure on what to do next, Pearl turned and faced Yasmin, who folded one of Pearl’s shirts before placing it into her suitcase.

“What’s the matter June?” Yasmin asked, quickly recognizing that something was bothering her sister. 

“All of my toys don’t fit.” Pearl frowned as she pointed over to her bag. “Does that mean I have to get rid of some of my toys?”

A couple days ago, Yasmin had a conversation with Pearl where she explained that they wouldn’t be able to take all of their belongings into their new home and that whatever they couldn’t bring, would be donated to a second hand shop. 

Pearl would never admit it, but it secretly hurt to see all their belongings go. Some things hurt less, like the analog clock hanging in the living room, but other things left Pearl with a weird sense of emptiness. 

Earlier, Yasmin had instructed Whitney to get rid of all of their Christmas decorations, and Pearl had found herself sad at the upcoming loss of them. Giving away their Christmas decorations felt like they were giving away the memories that came with it. It felt strange to think about these items being in a store, being easily available to a stranger, who would have no idea of the memories and moments these items held. 

Pearl didn’t want that to happen with her toys. She was already losing so much with giving away the impersonal things, that giving up something she was so close with would feel like the end of the world. 

Yasmin pressed her thin lips in a line. “June—” 

Yasmin was quickly cut off by the sound of Bec dumping her art stuff on the floor. Paintbrushes and pencils clattered, while papers fluttered on the floor. 

“Here.” Bec mumbled, tossing her empty backpack over to Pearl. 

“Bec,” Yasmin glanced over to the pile of artwork on the floor. “You don’t have to—”

“It’s fine.” Bec interrupted once against, her voice this time thick and unusually hard with emotion. 

Bec looked down at the floor with watery eyes. Letting out a loud sniff, Bec shot up from the floor and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her. 

Pearl looked over to Yasmin, who avoided eye contact as she carefully began to pick up Bec’s art from the floor. 

“It’s okay.” Yasmin reassured as she placed the pile of Bec’s artwork back into her bag. “We can put the rest of your toys in a box.”

Pearl felt like it was her fault for making Bec feel upset, even though Yasmin had told her otherwise. As much as Pearl should have been helping Yasmin clean up all the art supplies sprawled across the floor, Pearl felt frozen, the guilty pang in her stomach causing her to stay put and not ruin anything further. 

Snapping Pearl out of her guilt induced thoughts, the door to their bedroom swung open, catching both of Yasmin’s and Pearl’s attention.

Standing in the door frame was Whitney, who was holding something in her arms. 

“Look what I found.” Whitney exclaimed, waving the item up in the air. “It’s our photo album!”

Running over to where her sisters were sitting on the floor, Whitney sat herself in the space right between Yasmin and Pearl. Displaying the photo album on her lap, Whitney wiped away the thin layer of dust on the book’s surface. 

“Where did you find this?” Yasmin asked, ghosting her fingers across the spine of the photo album. 

“I found it in the attic, right next to all the Christmas stuff you told me to get rid of.” Whitney explained, continuing to wipe away the remaining specs of dust stuck on the plastic surface of the cover. 

“We haven’t looked through this in years!” Yasmin grinned.

“I know! I don’t think June has even seen this before!” Whitney announced excitedly, opening the book. “Where’s Bec? She’ll definitely want to see this too!” 

Yasmin paused for a second, her lips puckering once again. “I think she wants to be alone right now.” 

“Okay.” Whitney shrugged, not paying much attention to her sister’s tense body language. 

Turning towards Pearl, Whitney titled the album towards her direction. “Do you want to look through the album with me?”

Pearl immediately nodded, moving closer to Whitney so she could see what was inside. Placing the album across their laps, Whitney opened up the first page of the book and pointed over to the first picture inside. 

“This is mommy when she was pregnant with me.” Whitney explained, her fingers gently brushing over the photo.

In the picture, their mother was standing outside, dressed in an oversized floral print summer dress that hugged her pregnant frame. Holding her swollen baby bump, their mother looked straight into the camera, and gave a warm, wide smile that was reflected in her blue eyes. Her hair, the same strawberry blonde that Whitney and Pearl shared, was sleek and straight and fell just above her shoulders. 

In the photo, their mother seemed so energetic and full of life, but in the few memories Pearl held of her, their mother had looked the opposite, sick and tired and always in pain. 

Pearl looked over to Whitney, who was smiling down at the photo, matching the smile on their mother’s face. Whitney didn’t see their mother in the same way Pearl did, she could remember the good memories, not the ones where their mother was slumped over in a hospital bed.

Finally moving on from the first photo, Whitney turned her attention to the several photos underneath it.

“This is me when I was a baby.” Whitney said as she pointed over to a picture of herself when she was a newborn. In the picture, baby Whitney was swaddled in a pink blanket, her face red and wrinkled. 

Glancing over Whitney’s shoulder, Yasmin snorted at the sight of the picture. “Ugly.” She playfully teased, clearly wanting to get a reaction from her sister. 

“Oh you shouldn’t be talking Yasmin!” Whitney retorted. “At least I was born with hair!”

Flipping to the next page of the album, Whitney pointed to a picture of their mother holding a newborn Yasmin. “Look!” Whitney tapped her finger to the photo. “You were bald! Everyone thought you were a boy!” 

Whitney's remark had sent Pearl into a fit of giggles, which in turn, made Whitney double over in laughter as well. Despite the annoyed glare on Yasmin’s face, her lips twitched upwards almost as if she was trying to suppress her own laughter. 

Once Whitney and Pearl had calmed down from their laughter, they both turned their attention back over to the photo album. While Whitney reminisced over photos of her and Yasmin as toddlers, Pearl caught interest in a few photos in particular.

On the right side of the album, was a picture of a six year old Whitney and a three year old Yasmin, both giving hugs and kisses to their mother’s pregnant stomach. Right below it, was a picture of a newborn Bec, but instead of having her familiar brown hair, she had blonde, almost white hair. 

“Bec had blonde hair?!” Pearl gasped, completely dumbfounded over the fact that hair could suddenly change color. 

“When she was a baby.” Whitney replied. “It changed as she got older.” 

“Oh.” Pearl tilted her head to the side, her brain still not fully understanding why or how that was possible. 

Looking through the next few pages of the photo album, Pearl watched her sisters grow from toddlers, to kids, to teens in the matter of seconds, milestones of their lives all captured by polaroid pictures, labeled with dates, years and ages.

With another flip of the page, the two finally stumbled across Pearl’s baby pictures. Whitney immediately directs Pearl's attention to a few select photos, one of them being a picture of their mother sitting in a hospital bed, looking down fondly at the baby in her arms. 

“Look how tiny you were!” Whitney gushed, pointing her finger to the small, swaddled baby in the photo. 

Pearl could hardly believe that tiny baby was her. Given, the photo taken somewhat far away, making her look tinier than she probably was, but Pearl still thought she looked tinier than her sisters did at that age. 

“I remember we were all fighting about who would get to hold you first.” Whitney smiled, pointing over to several pictures of herself, Yasmin and Bec all individually holding Pearl.

Whitney flipped over to the next page in the book, only to find it blank. Flipping through the last few pages of the book, every single page was just as empty as the first. 

The way the album ended with newborn pictures of Pearl felt jarring. With the amount of blank pages left in the book, it seemed like their mother had every intention to fill the book up with more photos of Pearl as she grew. But because of her illness, the album was quickly forgotten, placed on the back burner to never be touched again. 

The book suddenly held a heavy weight to it, pressing down on both of their legs. 

Bringing the photo album to the floor, Whitney closed her eyes for a moment, taking a second just to breath. Pearl now understood why the photo album stayed in the attic for all these years. It brought up too many painful memories instead of the good ones the album was supposed to showcase. 

Whitney opened her eyes with a sigh. Turning to face Pearl, Whitney immediately pulled her little sister into a hug. 

“You look so much like her.” Whitney began as she pulled Pearl close to her chest. “You have her pretty hair and eyes…” 

Bringing her hand up to Pearl’s head, Whitney gently ran her fingers through her sisters short locks. Despite the smile on her face, Whitney had a sad look in her brown eyes. 

Talking about their mother always made her sisters sad, so it was never a topic they spoke about too often. As a way to comfort Whitney, Pearl pulled her sister into a tighter hug, knowing that her cuddles alway made Whitney feel better. 

Melting into her sister’s hug, the two held each other for a moment until Whitney pulled away. By the look on her face, Pearl’s hug had definitely done a lot to cheer her up. 

“Why did you have to get so big?” Whitney pouted, her signature cheery personality returning once again. “What happened to that tiny little baby in those photos?” 

Pearl giggled at her sister’s question. “I grew up!”

“Who said you were allowed to do that? Yasmin?” Whitney joked, earning another round of giggles from Pearl, and another eye roll from Yasmin. 

“If it were up to me, I would have you stay like this forever.” Whitney continued on. “Promise me you won’t grow up too fast while I’m gone?”

Even though it was a silly question for Whitney to ask of her, Pearl wanted to promise her anyways. Finding Whitney’s hand, Pearl wrapped her pinky finger around her sister’s. 

“I promise.”

_____

A bump on the road had woken Pearl up from her nap. Rubbing at her tired eyes, Pearl sat up straight in her car seat, before opening up her heavy eyelids.

Her eyes took a couple of seconds to adjust to the bright light of the sun beaming into the car window. In the front of the car, Whitney sat in the driver’s seat, softly humming along to the song on the radio, while Bec laid back in the passenger's seat, trying to catch some sleep like Pearl did. 

Yasmin was the only sister missing in the car. While Whitney, Bec and Pearl all rode in the family car, Yasmin was left with the task of driving the moving van with all of their belongings inside. 

The four of them stayed up late last night, trying to finish up any last minute packing they had left, along with trying to empty the house of all its furniture. They were all pretty exhausted, and it didn’t help that they all had to wake up earlier than usual to make the drive over to Empire State. 

Pearl was at least fortunate enough to get the most sleep out of all of them. Last night her sisters had stayed up way past midnight, stressing about the details of their move. 

While Whitney seemed the most awake, Bec had been like Pearl, tired and sluggish. Pearl wasn’t one to take naps anymore, especially in uncomfortable places like the car seat, but after all the exhaustion from last night, she so desperately needed one.

Taking a moment to stretch her tired limbs, Pearl wondered how long she has been asleep for. 

“Whitney?” Pearl called, keeping her voice low and quiet just in case Bec was sleeping. “Are we almost there?”

“We should be there pretty soon.” Whitney answered, their eyes meeting briefly at the rear view mirror. 

Soon enough, the car pulled into the familiar neighborhood that belonged to the Diamonds. Pulling into the circular driveway, Pearl noticed that the moving truck Yasmin had rented was already parked to the side of the driveway. 

Parking the car across the moving truck, Whitney turned the car off, stirring Bec from her sleep. Getting out of the car, Whitney opened the back door of the car and began to unstrap Pearl from her car seat.

Taking a moment to wake herself up, Bec followed Whitney out the car a few seconds later. Heading over to the back door of the passenger side, Bec opened the car door up, facing Whitney and Pearl from the opposite side. 

“All of our stuff is the backseat, right?” Bec asked, pointing down to the suitcases and bags that laid on the seat and floor of the car.

“Yep.” Whitney agreed as she helped Pearl get down from the car. “I put all of my stuff in the truck.” 

“Okay.” Bec nodded. “June can you come over here and help me grab our bags?” 

As Pearl ran over to the opposite side of the car, Bec had already pulled Pearl bags from the car, placing them onto the pavement of the driveway. Grabbing her backpack, Pearl placed it onto her shoulders before taking hold of her suitcase. 

“Need any help?” Whitney offered, even though her own hands were full. Walking over to her sisters, Whitney held Pearl’s car seat in her arms. 

Pulling her suitcase close to her, Pearl shook her head. “I got it.”

“Okay then.” Whitney laughed. “Let’s go to the house. Yasmin’s probably waiting for us inside.” 

After Bec had gathered her own bags, the three of them headed across the Diamonds front yard and over to the guest house at the end of the property. 

Compared to the Diamonds house, the guest house looked extremely small. The outside of the house was lined with the same grey siding, with a couple of concrete steps leading up to the front door. 

Pearl didn’t like how the house was so close to the trees that surrounded the property. The woods seemed so dark and uneasy, a place where you could easily get lost in if you went inside. Who knows what kind monsters could be lurking there after dark? 

Climbing up the stairs to the guest house, Whitney opened up the front door, revealing a fully furnished living room/kitchen. Sitting on the small red couch in the center of the room, was Yasmin, who immediately stood up to greet her sisters. 

Entering the house, both Bec and Pearl stood by the entrance, while Whitney began to walk around the living room, exploring the small space around her.

The small carpeted area that consisted of the living room was filled with a couch, a coffee table, and a big box like television. The kitchen, which was located in the front of the room, was a small tilted space of counters and kitchen appliances. Together, both areas of the house felt awfully cramped, especially since the four of them were all in the room together.

“This place is much smaller than I thought it would be.” Whitney admitted as she met Yasmin by the couch. 

“It is…” Yasmin sighed, rubbing her arm. “But it’s fine, it's just going to be the three of us anyway.”

A frown found its way on Whitney’s face. “Yeah, just the three of you…” 

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air. For weeks now, they all had known that moving was a required part of Whitney’s job, just like it had been for Yasmin’s and Bec’s. The only difference would be Whitney staying at Bianca Diamond’s house, which was almost half an hour away from where they lived. 

They all had come to terms with the idea, accepting the fact that they probably wouldn’t see each as often as they usually did. But now that their parting was about to become reality in a few short hours, saying goodbye was going a lot harder than expected.

Clearing her throat, Yasmin quickly changed the subject of the conversation. “Why don’t we look around before we start unpacking?” 

“Why not?” Whitney exclaimed she placed Pearl’s car seat down onto the coffee table. Despite the cheery tone in her voice, Pearl could recognize that it was way too happy and fake to be considered real. 

Guiding the group over to where the hallway was, Yasmin pointed over to the first door on the right.

“This is the bathroom.” Yasmin informed, opening up the door for her sisters to see inside. Moving over to the other door on the opposite side of the hallway, Yasmin opened the door to reveal a bedroom. “And this is going to be June’s room.” 

Following her sisters inside her new room, Pearl noticed that there was only one piece of furniture in the room, a small twin sized bed, that was pressed against one of the white walls of the room. 

Pearl was confused as to why there was only bed in the room. Her and Bec had always shared a room together, and they hadn’t discussed otherwise during the process of moving. 

Looking up to Bec, who was biting at her lower lip, Pearl waited for her sister to give an explanation. 

“Yasmin and I are sharing a room.” Bec explained, answering the question Pearl didn’t dare to say out loud. 

“Luck you.” Whitney grinned, crouching down to Pearl’s height. “You get to have a room all by yourself.” 

Pearl found herself frowning. She didn’t know how to feel about sleeping in this room all by herself. 

Noticing the unhappy look on her sister’s face, Whitney reached over and placed a hand onto Pearl's shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” 

After a quick tour of Yasmin’s and Bec bedroom, which had been identical to Pearl’s, the four of them headed back into the living room. While her sisters gathered around the front entrance of the house, Pearl made herself comfortable on the new plushy red couch in the center of the living room. 

“We should probably start unpacking.” Yasmin suggested, pulling the keys from the rental truck out from the pocket of her jacket. “I have to return the van before the moving company closes.”

“It’s better to start now so I can help you guys unpack before I leave.” Whitney agreed, eying the clock that was hung right above the TV.

Nodding Yasmin opened up the front door, letting Whitney and Bec leave first before exiting herself. At the sight of all her sisters leaving, Pearl immediately jumped down from the couch and ran straight over to Yasmin. 

“You don’t have to help us, June.” Yasmin insisted. “You can stay inside if you want.” 

“I want to be you guys.” Pearl shyly answered, not fully wanting to explain to Yasmin that she felt uncomfortable being in the house all by herself. 

Looking down at her sister with pursed lips, Yasmin took a moment to think before speaking. 

“Fine.” She finally settled on, letting Pearl come outside before closing the door shut. “You can come with us, but you're not unpacking anything from the truck. The boxes are way too heavy for you to carry.”

Nodding, Pearl took her sister’s hand as they traveled down the front step of their house. Both Whitney and Bec were waiting for them on the paved pathway that led to the front of the guest house. 

“June’s tagging along?” Whitney asked as soon as the two approached her and Bec 

Nodding, Yasmin opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, she was interrupted by the sound of the Diamonds sliding door opening and closing. Bringing their attention over to the Diamonds house, Yelena Diamond stood on the back patio, both of her hands situated on her hips.

Making eye contact with Yasmin, Yelena motioned for her to come over, clearly wanting to start up a conversation with her.

Letting go of Pearl’s hand, Yasmin threw the keys of the moving truck over to Whitney, who somehow managed to catch them without any warning.

“Start unpacking the truck.” Yasmin instructed to both Whitney and Bec, ignoring the dirty look on her older sister's face.

“And June,” Yasmin began, turning to face her sister. “You stay over here.”

Walking away from her sisters, Yasmin hurried over to where Yelena Diamond was waiting, jogging across the neatly trimmed lawn that separated the two houses.

While Yasmin made her way over to the Diamond’s house, Whitney and Bec both strolled down the pathway, whispering to each other as they made their way to the moving truck parked in the driveway.

Pearl did what she was told and stayed put. Sitting down on the front steps, Pearl slowly dragged the sole of her sneaker across the edge of the concrete steps as she watched Yasmin and Yelena talk from afar. 

So far, the conversation between the two had been more of a one sided thing. While Yelena did most of the talking, Yasmin would occasionally comment on something, or would agree to something every now and then. For the most part, Yasmin stayed quiet, nodding along to show that she was listening. After all their conversation was about the responsibilities her and Bec had to do around the house, so it wasn’t like Yasmin had much to add in the first place. 

As Pearl continued to watch the two, in the corner of her eye she could see the tiny silhouette of someone from inside the Diamonds house approaching the tinted sliding door. 

As the figure stepped closer to the sliding, Pearl was able to see her face, quickly recognizing the person as Pink Diamond, who was holding a melting orange popsicle in her hand. 

Compared to the last she saw her, Pink was dressed casually in her blue denim shorts and white t-shirt. Even from far away, Pearl could see the orange stain from her popsicle smeared across the front of her shirt. 

Standing on her tippy toes, Pink peered out the glass door, clearly wanting to know what her mother was up to outside. After watching her mother for a few seconds, Pink quickly lost interest, looking beyond the patio where Yasmin and Yelena stood, and over to where the woods and guest house was. 

Spotting Pearl on the steps, a smile immediately lit up on Pink’s face as she began to frantically wave with her free hand. Reaching for the handle of the sliding door, Pink pushed all her weight against the door, sliding it open.

Upon hearing the sound of the sliding door open, Yelena paused from her conversation, turning her attention over to the open screen door. 

“Close the door.” Yelena instructed, sending a glare over to her daughter. 

Instead of listening, Pink looked her mother in the eye as she stepped outside onto the patio. 

“Pink Diamond.” Her mother declared. “Don't make me bring you inside.” 

Ignoring her mother once again, Pink took a small step forward, clearly testing how much she could push her mother's patience until she could get what she wanted.

“Do you want to go time out again?” Yelena snapped, clearly at her wits end with her daughter’s behavior. 

This time her threat had worked, causing Pink to run back into the house, leaving a trail of melted orange syrup in her path. 

Returning back to their conversation, Yelena gave what was assumed to be an apology, before continuing as normal. So far in all the interactions with their family, Yelena Diamond had handled things seriously and directly, almost as if she was dealing with something as serious as a business transaction instead of employing someone.

Yelena Diamond just held an intimidating, untouchable, aura to her. From the way she had reacted to Pink ignoring her, Pearl realized it was best to avoid getting her fired up. Her reaction had been mostly mild, but Pearl could tell that Yelena was the type of person to turn the fiery place downstairs over when she would get angry.

Clearly mad about being sent back inside, Pink slammed the sliding doors shut, the loud sound from the collision echoing throughout the backyard. The impact of the door being thrown had clearly shaken the house, because the dripping popsicle in Pink’s hand had fallen to the floor in a heap of melted sludge. 

It wasn’t a surprise that Blair Diamond had rushed into the room almost a second later. After hearing the sliding door being thrown close, she probably had an instinct that her daughter was up to no good. 

At the sight of her mother standing by the entryway of the dining room, Pink immediately froze, knowing that there was no way she could cover up her tracks, or her mess, now.

Blair immediately pulled her lips into frown as she spotted the melted mess of popsicle on the floor. Closing her eyes for a second, Blair’s hands found their way to her temples, seemingly trying to soothe an upcoming headache.

And by the look on Blair’s face, Pearl could tell that situations like these happened way too often at the Diamond household. 

After taking a moment to gather her composure, Blair made her way to her daughter, being mindful to avoid the orange puddle of sugar on the floor. 

Crouching down to her daughter's height, Blair began what Pearl assumed to be a scolding. Their conversation couldn’t be heard through the glass, but with the context of the situation, Blair was most likely chastising Pink for leaving the house and making a mess on the floor. 

Surprisingly, Blair had managed to stay calm for the most part. She was of course annoyed, and it showed on her face, but compared to how her partner reacted to Pink misbehaving earlier, Blair was clearly the lenient parent out of the two.

Pointing over to the stained fabric of Pink’s shirt, Blair then motioned over to the living room, clearly sending her daughter out of the room. Standing up to her full height, Blair followed Pink into the living room, where the two of them disappeared from Pearl’s view.

Hearing footsteps walking on the pathway, Pearl turned her attention away from the Diamonds sliding door and over to the pathway in front of her. Walking over to the house, was Whitney and Bec, both holding two boxes in their hands.

Realizing that she was blocking the stairs, Pearl stood up and moved away from her seat on the front steps. 

As her sisters walked past her and climbed up the front steps of the house, Pearl turned her attention back over to Yasmin, who seemed to be wrapping up her conversation. Past the two of them, Pearl could see Blair Diamond through the screen door, kneeling on the floor, mopping up her daughter’s mess.

Parting from their conversation, Yasmin and Yelena headed towards their separate ways, Yasmin over to the guest house and Yelena towards the sliding door of her own home.

As Yelena opened up the screen door, an audible “Be careful!” from Blair could be heard. Carefully stepping into the house, just as her significant other suggested, Yelena closed the sliding door shut, muting their conversation for Pearl to hear.

Looking down at Blair sitting down on the floor, Yelena watched as Blair began to explain the mess their daughter made, pulling her lips into pout as she pointed to the now clean floor.

Responding to her rant, Yelena extended her arm towards Blair, who took it as she carefully stood herself up. Whatever Yelena had said to her did not lighten up the sullen mood on Blair's face, causing her pout even more.

Laughing at the look on Blair’s face, Yelena pulled Blair closer, wrapping her arms around her waist. The look on Blair’s face immediately softened as she leaned into the embrace, pulling her lips in a giddy smile short from pulling her spouse into a kiss.

Pearl immediately tore away her eyes from the scene. Kissing was gross and she had seen enough of it watching soap operas with Whitney.

As Yasmin finally reached the house, Whitney and Bec appeared from inside, walking down the front steps and over to their sister. Making their way back over to the moving truck, Pearl followed behind them. After all, she still didn’t want to be left alone. 

_____

It didn’t take long to bring all of the boxes into the house, especially since they had brought much to begin with. Pearl had tried her best to help along, even though she was limited with what she could do. She wasn’t allowed to carry any boxes, but she was allowed to help her sisters sort through all the unpacked items and decide where they should go in the house. 

Once the majority of their items had been unpacked, the four of them had settled down for dinner. While Yasmin and Bec were in the kitchen flipping grilled cheeses on the stovetop, both Whitney and Pearl had cuddled up on the couch, enjoying the little time they had left with each other before having to say goodbye.

Walking over to the living room with a ceramic plate in hand, Yasmin walked over to Pearl, who pulled herself away from Whitney’s embrace before taking the grilled cheese from her sister.

“Thank you.” Pearl said before she picked up one of the halves and took a bite. 

Yasmin only gave her a smile before turning back into the kitchen. There had always been an unspoken rule in the family that Pearl was always to be served first. 

As Pearl finished the first half of her sandwich, Yasmin appeared from the kitchen once again, this time with a plate for Whitney. 

From the kitchen, the smell of toast bread and butter wafted in the living room. Bec, who was watching the bread grilling on the pan, took a bite from her own sandwich, before picking up the pan from the stove and sliding the grilled cheese onto a plate reserved for Yasmin. While Pearl was the first to eat, Yasmin was always the last.

Eating the last bite of her dinner, Pearl slid off of the couch with her empty plate in hand. But before Pearl could take a step forward to the kitchen, Whitney placed her hand onto Pearl’s shoulder, stopping her from moving forward.

“Hmm!” Whitney hummed as she chewed through a mouthful food. “I’ll take your plate.” 

Taking the plate from Pearl’s hand, Whitney stood up from the couch as she made her way over to the kitchen, placing the empty dishes into the small sink. Moving over towards Yasmin, who was leant over the counter eating, Whitney tapped her shoulder before whispering into her ear. 

“Now?” Yasmin frowned, placing her sandwich down onto her plate. 

Whitney slowly nodded, turning her attention over to the tiled floor of the kitchen.

Yasmin glanced over to Pearl before meeting Whitney’s eyes again. “You have to be the one to tell her.” 

Turning to face her little sister, Whitney nervously chewed on her bottom lip before she found the courage to speak up. 

“June,” She started, taking in another deep steadying breath. “I have to go now.”

As much as Pearl thought she had prepared herself for this, it hurt a lot more than she thought it would. She had always been the closest with Whitney, after all she was the one that would take care of Pearl most of the time. It would be strange to not have her around anymore.

She could feel the tears pricking in her eyes, as much as she promised herself she would not get upset, Pearl couldn’t help herself. 

Letting out a series of shaky breaths, the tears quickly take over, blurring her eyesight. Through her tears, Pearl could see Whitney running over to her before immediately engulfing her into a hug. 

“Don’t cry.” Whitney tried to comfort, trying to wipe away the tears running down Pearl’s flushed cheeks. “June, _please_.” 

Whitney's voice cracked awfully, like if she was trying to hold back her own tears. 

The sadness in her sister’s voice somehow makes Pearl more upset, causing her to sob even harder. Pulling Whitney into a tighter hug, Pearl sobbed into the fabric of her sweater, not wanting her sister to leave her. 

Eventually prying herself away from Pearl’s grip, Whitney tried to give her sister a smile, but Pearl could easily tell that it was just an act to make her feel better. 

“I promise that I’ll call when I’m not busy.” Whitney assured. “And whenever I’m off from work, I’ll try to come over and visit.”

Pearl nodded through her tears, trying to muffle the hiccups that came from her intense sobs. 

Pressing a kiss to her little sister’s forehead, Whitney brought Pearl into another comforting hug. “I love you so much June-Bug, I truly do.”

Staying in the hug for a second longer, Whitney pulled away, smoothing down Pearl’s hair one last time before getting herself up from the floor.

Walking over to Bec, Whitney pulled her sister into a tight hug as they exchanged their goodbyes, a couple of low whispers only the two of them could hear.

And once Whitney finally pulled away, she finally turned to Yasmin. 

Silence hung in the air for a moment, unspoken words waiting to be said. A million things could have been said in that moment, a whole catalogue of unspoken apologies and promises, remembrances and goodbyes. But ultimately, Yasmin decided to say one thing.

“I’ll walk you to your car.”

Even though her suggestion seemed rather uncaring, Pearl knew their relationship well enough to know that’s how most exchanges went between them. It seemed appropriate for them to want a private moment to say their goodbyes, after all, at one point it had been the two of them against the world. 

As Whitney and Yasmin made their way over to the front door, Pearl immediately turned away and ran over to Bec, burying her face in the rough denim of her jeans so she didn’t have to see them leave.

She could still hear the door shut, which didn’t make her feel any better. Finding herself crying again, her hiccups came back in full force, violently jerking her body with every sob. 

Picking Pearl up as if she was a baby, Bec gently rubbed her sister’s back as she grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the sink. Placing Pearl back on her feet, Bec handed over the glass, which Pearl took and began to slowly sip at.

Once her hiccups had disappeared, Pearl brought the glass away from her mouth, staring down at the remaining water left in the glass.

“It’s getting pretty late.” Bec said as she took the glass from Pearl’s hand. “I think it’s time for you to take a bath.” 

After a quick bath, Bec had dressed Pearl in her pajamas and had combed through her wet hair before allowing her to leave the bathroom. 

Entering into the hallway of her new house, Pearl shivered as her bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor. Walking over to the carpeted area of the living room, Pearl saw that Yasmin was sitting on the couch, blankly staring at the TV in front of her. 

Moving closer to the couch, Pearl could see how blotchy Yasmin’s face was, along with how swollen and red her eyes looked. She had been crying about Whitney too.

Pearl hoisted herself onto the couch, making her presence known. Pulling herself closer to Yasmin, Pearl leaned for a hug, wanting to comfort her sister. Whenever Pearl would feel sad or upset, her sisters would be there to hug her and cuddle with her until she felt better, so it was only fair to return the favor when Yasmin was in need. 

Accepting her little sister’s hug, Yasmin wrapped her arm around Pearl’s tiny frame, pulling her close to her side. Pearl immediately relaxed in the comfort of her sister, closing her eyes as she paid little to no attention to the low jumble of words and sounds coming from TV.

It wasn’t Pearl's intention to fall asleep in her sister’s arms, but after all the unpacking and crying she had done today, she had felt completely drained of energy. Whatever sleep she did get on the couch didn’t last long, the sound of a plate falling into the sink would wake Pearl up from her sleep.

Shifting into a different position in her sister’s arms, Pearl rubbed at her tired eyes, wanting to sleep to take over once again. But before that could happen, the sound of Yasmin speaking stirred from her sleepiness.

“I think it’s time for you to go to bed.” Yasmin decided, keeping her voice soft and whispery to not disturb Pearl any further.

As Yasmin carried her over to her bedroom, Pearl cracked her eyes open, noticing Bec trailing behind them as they traveled down the hallway.

Entering the bedroom, Yasmin carefully placed Pearl into her bed before tucking her into the covers.

“Goodnight.” She whispered. “We love you.”

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Yasmin moved out of the way, so Bec could have her turn to say goodnight. 

Coming to the bed with Pearl’s favorite teddy bear, Bec tucked the stuffed animal under the covers before pressing a kiss to her sister’s cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

Watching her sister’s leave the room, Bec was the one who closed the door shut, leaving Pearl all alone in her unfamiliar room. For some reason she doesn’t feel sleepy anymore, almost as if all the sleep had drained from all her body in the seconds it took for her sisters to leave the room.

Moving on to her side, Pearl stared at the blank wall across from her, illuminated by the remaining glimpses of daylight entering from the window.

It was weird to see the walls of her bedroom be so blank. In her and Bec’s old bedroom, the walls of their room were covered with her sister’s art, showcasing all the paintings and drawings she had made at school or during her free time. 

Pearl loved it just as much as Bec did. At night, when Pearl had trouble falling asleep, she would look up to all the drawings in the room. In the dark, the art would transform into something completely different than it originally had intended to be.

Pearl couldn’t help but frown at the empty wall across from her. Seeing it made her miss sharing a room with Bec.

There was comfort in knowing that Bec would always be there at night, sleeping right across from her. If Pearl had a nightmare, she knew that Bec would be there to reassure her that everything was okay, and if Pearl was scared of the dark, she knew that Bec would be there to protect from anything that could harm her.

But now, Bec wouldn’t be in her new room with her. 

What would happen if she had a nightmare? 

Pearl found herself glancing over to the window. Through the thin white curtains she could see the outline of the trees outside.

What would happen if she became scared? 

Prying her eyes away from the window, Pearl closed her eyes shut, pressing her teddy bear close to her chest. 

She could feel the hot tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She wanted to go home. She wanted Whitney to live with them again. 

Clutching her teddy bear even closer to her chest, Pearl let out a couple of quiet sobs. Even though she felt beyond exhausted, she couldn’t turn off her mind.

The pattern of overthinking had continued for most of the night until Pearl had finally passed out from exhaustion. Whatever sleep she did manage to get was short lived, because Yasmin had woken her up much earlier than expected.

Opening the door to her room, Yasmin flicked the lights on, waking Pearl up from her sleep. Sitting up on her bed, Pearl squinted at her surroundings, taking a second to remember where she was as her eyes adjusted to the light.

Helping her sister get down from the bed, Yasmin changed Pearl out of her pajamas and into a new set of clothes. After taking a moment to comb through Pearl’s disheveled hair, Yasmin had picked up Pearl’s backpack from the ground and placed it onto her shoulders before taking Pearl’s hand and leading her into the living room.

As soon as she spotted her sisters entering the room, Bec immediately got up from the couch and made her way over to the front door, allowing her sisters to exit the house before leaving herself. 

It was still dark outside as they crossed the pathway that connected the two houses together. In the horizon, the sun had started to rise, barely producing enough light to illuminate the entire backyard. 

Pearl held tightly onto Yasmin's hand as they made their way over to the Diamonds back patio. In the dark, the back property seemed even more shadowy and intimidating than it was before.

Pearl kept her eyes on the ground, trying not not to scare herself any further by looking around into the unknown of the dark. As they approached the back patio, Pearl spotted the trail of dried up popsicle syrup Pink had left on the ground. A dead ant laid in one of the particularly big puddles, where it had gotten stuck and eventually had drowned in the sugar syrup.

The sound of Bec opening the sliding door tore Pearl’s eyes away from the ground. Following their sister in the house, Yasmin was the one to close the door shut, being mindful not to carefully close the door with any force.

Walking into the kitchen, Yasmin led Pearl over to one of the empty corners at the far end of the room. Taking Pearl’s bag off of her shoulders, Yasmin placed the bag against the wall.

“You can sit here while we cook.” Yasmin explained, pointing over to the corner where Pearl’s backpack was.

Nodding, Pearl sat where she was told, watching Yasmin as she went over to help Bec grab ingredients from the refrigerator.

Pulling her backpack to her chest, Pearl rested her chin on the bag almost as if it were a pillow. Struggling to keep her eyes open, Pearl eyes felt like heavy weights that couldn’t be held up for too long. She felt beyond tired, and the fact that she did not get enough sleep wasn’t helping.

As much as her body craved sleep, the kitchen wasn’t the best place to sleep in. The sounds of eggs sizzling in a pan, the toaster popping up, Yasmin teaching Bec how to separate egg whites from the yolk, all prevent Pearl from reaching the sleep she so desperately needed. 

Even though sleep seemed impossible with all the noise, Pearl still kept her eyes shut. The artificial light of the kitchen was too straining on her tired eyes.

But eventually, the sound of Bec calling her name does force her to open her eyes.

Slowly cracking open her eyes, Pearl saw that Bec was standing above her with a plate of food in her hands. Taking the backpack out of her sister’s hand, Bec crouched down and placed the plate of food onto Pearl’s lap. 

“Eat.” Bec stated, standing up to her full height. 

Pearl inspected the food in front of her, scrambled eggs along with a slice of toast cut into triangles. Picking up the fork on the side of the plate, Pearl poked a few pieces of egg before placing them into her mouth.

Looking back up to Bec, Pearl noticed that she hadn’t moved from where she was standing. Standing at an angle, Bec watched as Yasmin portioned food out onto two plates, while still standing over Pearl.

As Yasmin left the kitchen with the two plates of food balanced on her hands, Bec immediately tensed, looking over her shoulder almost as if she expected someone to come in the kitchen and take Pearl’s food away.

Bec's fidgeting was starting to make Pearl feel nervous as well, making her pick up her pace when it came to eat just so Bec could stop hovering over her. 

Once she had finished eating, Pearl had tapped the side of Bec’s leg, alerting her that she was done with her breakfast. Taking the plate from Pearl’s hands, Bec went over to the sink and placed the dish inside along with the other kitchenware that had become dirty during the process of making breakfast.

Running the water from the sink, Bec grabbed a kitchen sponge and saturated it with water before dabbing a small amount of dish soap on to the surface. 

As Bec began to wash the dishes, Yasmin returned to the kitchen, heading straight over to the sink to talk to her sister. Keeping her voice low, Pearl couldn’t hear Yasmin well, especially since the water in the sink was running.

Bec, who had heard Yasmin clearly, nodded along as she turned off the water from the sink. Drying her hands on a little dish towel by the sink, Bec then made her way over to where Pearl was sitting in the corner.

“Get up, June” Bec said as she extended her hand for Pearl to grab on to. “Yasmin talked to the Diamonds, they said you could sit at the dining room table whenever we’re in the kitchen.”

Holding onto Bec’s hand, Pearl lifted herself up from the tilted floor, still holding on tightly to her sister’s hand as she picked up her backpack from the floor. 

They continued to hold hands until they reached the empty dining room. Helping Pearl take a seat on one of the tall chair’s on the dining table, Bec placed her backpack onto the chair sitting next to her.

Pearl studied the massive mahogany table in front of her. Across from where she was sitting, two empty plates were sitting on the table, waiting to be picked up. 

Once Bec had made sure Pearl was situated, she had walked over to the other side of the table and picked up the plates, taking the forks and knives in one hand, while taking the two plates in her other. 

“You can play with your toys, but be careful not to scratch the table.” Bec warned. “And make sure you stay quiet, the Diamonds are in the living room.”

Pearl nodded at her sister, silently promising to be as careful and well behaved as she could possibly be. 

“We’ll still be in the kitchen if you need us.” Bec reminded, nodding towards the direction of the kitchen. 

As Bec returned to the kitchen, Pearl peered into the living room, trying to see where both of the Diamonds were. She couldn’t see them, but by the light from the TV bouncing off the shadowy parts of the living room, Pearl knew that had to be at the sitting area in the front of the house.

With not much to do at the table, Pearl repositioned herself on the chair to look at the sunrise. She did have her toys to play with, but after Bec’s warning, she wouldn’t dare to put them close to the table. 

A couple minutes later, the sound of high heels approaching the dining room immediately caused Pearl to turn away from the sliding door. Sitting herself up straight, Pearl watched as Blair Diamond entered the room, seemingly heading towards where her sisters were in the kitchen. 

Noticing Pearl sitting at the table, Blair gave a polite smile before continuing her way over to the kitchen.

Pearl’s eyes fall to her lap, too shy to look up at Blair Diamond again. Pearl still watched her from her peripheral vision, only looking up once again once Blair had turned her attention over to the kitchen.

“Rebecca?” Blair called, resting her hand on the framing the separated the two rooms. 

Bec, who was packing food into a lunchbox, immediately lifted her head at the sound of her name. “Yes, Ms. Diamond?”

“I want to show you Pink’s routine before I leave.” Blair Diamond explained. “This way you’ll know how to operate things while we’re gone.”

Bec nodded her head, quickly packing the last few items into the lunchbox, before walking towards where Blair Diamond was standing.

“Oh, and Yasmin?” Blair continued, stopping both of Pearl’s sisters in their tracks. “Can you please give Yelena our lunchboxes when you are done packing them?”

Yasmin frivolously nodded at the command given to her. “Of course, Ms. Diamond.”

Turning away from the kitchen, Blair began to explain the beginnings of her daughter’s routine as she and Bec both made their way towards the living room.

“Normally, I usually let Pink wake up by herself, but for the sake of showing you everything before I leave, we’re going to have to wake her up now.” Blair shared as the two of them entered the living room. “I hope she won’t be too cranky for you.” 

Once Blair and Bec had disappeared from her view, Pearl turned her attention back over to the kitchen, where Yasmin was still busy packing both of the Diamonds lunches.

Zipping both of the lunchboxes shut, Yasmin picked both bags up from the counter and headed straight towards the living room and over to the couches that were beyond Pearl’s view.

After handing over the lunchboxes over to Yelena Diamond, Yasmin made her way back over to the kitchen, passing Pearl without even stopping to acknowledge her. 

Pearl understood that both of her sisters were working, so she knew they wouldn’t have the time to stop and check on her during the most parts of the day. Pearl had to help on their part by being independent, which was something she was already familiar with. As long as she was in close enough proximity to her sisters, Pearl would be fine with being alone. 

The sound of someone running down the stairs immediately drew Pearl’s eyes back over to the living room. Sprinting down the staircase, was of course Pink Diamond, who already had way too much energy for someone who had woken up only a few minutes prior. 

Yelena Diamond had heard her daughter coming down the stairs as well, getting up from her seat on the couch to greet her daughter at the end of the staircase. 

As soon as Pink reached the bottom staircase, she immediately ran into her mother’s legs, causing Yelena to stumble back from the force.

“Mama!” Pink cheered, raising her hands as a way to tell her mother she wanted to be picked up. “You’re home!” 

Picking up her daughter, Yelena grimaced as she adjusted to the weight of holding her daughter. The heavy work bags slung across her shoulders didn’t seem to help, only adding more strain.

“Not for long.” Yelena deadpanned. “Your mother and I are going to work soon.”

Pink twisted her lips into a pout. “Oh.” 

Coming down from the stairs, Blair entered into the living room, still explaining her daughter’s routine as Bec trailed after her.

“After breakfast, I like her to do something educational for at least an hour, like reading or practicing the alphabet.” Blair informed as two stopped in the foyer, right next to Yelena and Pink.

At the sight of Blair arriving downstairs, Yelena had placed Pink back down, clearly wanting to get the other hefty work bag off her shoulder. Handing over the navy colored bag to Blair, who took the bag without even pausing from her conversation. 

“Lunch time is at twelve, and for that I’ll make her a sandwich with a side dish of fruit, and then I’ll serve her dinner around six.” Blair specified. “She's been picky when it comes to eating lately, so I left some suggestions for you to make. Sometimes I let her have a little bit of ice cream after dinner, but only if she finished all of her food.” 

“Bath time is at 7:30, you don’t have to worry about washing her hair because I already washed it last night.” She continued. “And then bedtime is at eight. We should be home by then, but if we are not, make sure to lock the door in her room that leads to the playroom.”

Bringing her index finger to her chin, Blair paused for a second. “There was something else I wanted to tell you…” 

Taking another second to think, Blair lit up as soon as she remembered what she wanted to talk about. “Oh! Time out!”

“So this is the time out chair.” Blair explained as she brought Bec’s attention over to the crushed blue velvet chair flushed against the staircase wall. “If Pink starts to misbehave, we’ll sit her here until she apologizes. I try not to put her on time out too often, I try to give her a couple chances to fix her behavior before I do. But for the most part, time out does work.”

Walking up to Blair before she could start talking again, Yelena laid her hand onto her spouse’s shoulder. “We’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon.”

“Okay, just let me say goodbye to Pink before we leave.” Blair assured, turning her attention over towards their daughter.

“Pink,” She cooed, crouching down her daughter’s height.“Can I get a hug and a kiss before I go to work?”

Launching herself into her mother’s arms, Pink immediately pulled her mother into a tight embrace.

“I love you Mommy!” Pink exclaimed, pressing a kiss to her mother’s cheek. 

Smoothing down her daughter’s brown curls, Blair couldn’t help but smile down at her daughter. “I love you too, baby girl.”

Pulling herself away from her daughter, Blair stood to her full height, brushing away the wrinkles from her skirt. “Now go say goodbye to your mama.” 

“Wait!” Pink whined, tugging on the sleeve of mother’s blouse. “I want to tell you something!”

“Then tell me.” Blair calmly answered, gently prying her daughter’s fingers away from the fabric of her sleeve.

“Can I go to the pool later?” Pink asked, swaying side to side as she waited for her answer. 

“I forgot to tell you about the pool!” Blair gasped, turning face Bec again. “Whenever Pink’s in the pool she needs to be supervised at all times. She is a very strong swimmer but you still need to keep an eye out for her, especially when she’s diving into the deep end.”

“Blair.” Yelena interrupted, tapping her finger to the face of her gold watch to emphasize the time. “We have to go.”

“I know Yelena, I know.” Blair responded, waving off her spouse to return back to her and Bec previous conversation. “If you have any questions, just let us know. Our emergency contacts are on the fridge.”

Yelena rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed at the fact that Blair was continuing to talk even though they were on a time crunch. 

“Relax love, I’m ready to go.” Blair laughed, finding the look on Yelena's face to be amusing. “Say goodbye to Pink and then we’ll leave.”

Doing as Blair said, Yelena brought Pink into a hug, the irritable look on her face alleviating once Pink had warmed up to her embrace. Bending down to her daughter’s height, Yelena pressed a kiss to the top of Pink’s head.

“Behave.” She warned, her face turning serious once again. 

Pulling away from Pink, Yelena adjusted the cross body strap of her work bag, turning to tell Blair that she was ready to leave. Making their way over to the front door, Yelena unlatched the heavy duty lock before pushing the door open.

While Yelena headed outside, Blair lingered at the doorway, taking a second to look back at her daughter before following her outside. A sleek black car was parked in the center of the driveway, and right beside it, was a chauffeur waiting to open the car for the Diamonds.

Running up to the open front door, Pink stood at the door frame as she watched her parents enter the back seat of the car. Once her parents had gotten situated, Pink began to wave at the car, wanting to send them off with another goodbye.

Pearl had caught a glimpse of the car as it pulled out of the driveway. With the back window of the car rolled down, the frown on Blair Diamond’s face was easily seen as she waved back at her daughter until the car had pulled away from the front of the house. 

Once the car had disappeared from the driveway, Bec had closed the door shut, locking the fancy gold latch on the door once again. 

Looking down to Pink, Bec had placed her hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “Are you ready to have breakfast?”

“Yeah!” Pink cheered, bouncing up and down on the tips of toes before bolting over the dining room.

Noticing Pearl sitting at the dining room table, a huge smile lit up on Pink’s face as she ran over to take a seat across from Pearl.

“I saw you sitting outside yesterday!” Pink recalled as she climbed onto one of the table’s tall chairs. “I wanted to come out and talk to you!”

Coming from the kitchen with a plate of food in her hand, Yasmin froze as she saw the two girls sitting at the table together. Looking over to Bec, who had just entered the room, Yasmin shared a frantic look with her sister.

Pearl immediately recognized that they were communicating without talking, something the two of them did when they didn’t want Pearl to know what was going on.

Giving her sister an equally as exasperated look, Bec shrugged her shoulders, clearly not knowing how to respond back.

Rolling her eyes at Bec, Yasmin pulled her lips into line as she placed the plate food in front of Pink. Heading across the table over to where Pearl was sitting, Yasmin grabbed her sister’s backpack and placed it over one of her shoulders.

“Come on, June.” Yasmin grumbled as she took Pearl’s hand, helping her get down from the chair. 

Pearl knew what sour tone in her sister’s voice meant, so Pearl followed Yasmin out of the room without any complaint. A part of her wanted to know why they had to leave, but Pearl decided against asking her sister why after seeing Yasmin’s tense behavior.

Instead, Pearl just sighed as she followed her sister downstairs into the laundry room. 

_____

The sound of the washing machine hummed throughout the laundry room, drowning out the sound of Pearl scribbling her color pencils across her notebook. Underneath all of her toys, Pearl had found a notebook and color pencils at the bottom of her backpack. After asking Yasmin if it was okay to draw, Pearl had started to draw a picture as a way to pass some time.

Looking up from her half finished drawing, Pearl watched as Yasmin folded another shirt before adding it to a pile of nearly identical blouses on the small laundry table. 

Letting out a sigh, Yasmin paused for a second as she glanced over to the small clock on the wall.

“June,” She called, turning to face her little sister, who was sitting on the ground. “It’s time for lunch.”

Nodding at her sister, Pearl placed both of her notebook and color pencils back into her bag before lifting herself up from the ground. Walking back upstairs, the two of them entered the dining room, where Pink was already sitting at the table, waiting for her lunch to come. 

Bringing Pearl over to the opposite side of the table, Yasmin helped Pearl climb on to the seat right across from Pink.

“I’m going to get your lunches, I’ll be back in a minute.” Yasmin explained before heading into the kitchen, leaving the girls in the dining room by themselves.

Turning her attention over to Pearl, Pink sat herself on her knees, making herself look taller. “Do you want to go to the pool with me later?”

“I don’t know, I have to ask my sisters.” Pearl shrugged, peering into the kitchen where her sisters were busy preparing their plates of food. 

“If we go, we can jump in the deep end! Or we can race! That’s what me and my mommy do whenever we go swimming! My mama never goes in the pool with us because she doesn’t know how to swim— Do you know how to swim?” Pink blurted out in all one breath 

Pearl shook her head no, only to be interrupted by Pink before she could explain. 

“I can teach you! It’s really easy, all you need to do is hold your breath and…” Pink trailed off before she could finish her sentence, getting distracted by Bec coming into the room with their lunches.

As Bec placed the plates of food on to the table, Pearl tried to thank her sister, but her quiet voice was quickly overpowered by Pink’s loud one. 

“Yay strawberries!” Pink cheered, picking up one of the pieces of fruit from the plate. “Strawberries are my favorite fruit!”

Bec nodded along with Pink. “Make sure you eat your sandwich too.” 

“I will!” Pink promised before placing a strawberry into her mouth.

While the girls ate their lunch in silence, Bec and Yasmin stayed in the kitchen, chatting as they wiped the counters clean. As Pearl took the last bite of her sandwich, the phone in the living room started to ring, sending a loud chime into the air 

Sprinting out of the kitchen, Bec ran over to where the rotary phone was in the living room, right on the small desk that was next to Pink’s time out chair. Picking up the phone from the base of the telephone, Bec held it to her ear. “Diamond residence?”.

Listening to the other person talking on the other side of the phone, Bec nodded her head. “She’s in the other room, I’ll go get her.” 

Lowering the phone from her ear, Bec placed her hand over the speaker. “Pink, your parents want to speak with you.” 

Hopping down from her seat at the table, Pink ran over to Bec, who handed her the phone.

“Hi mama! Hi mommy!” Pink said into the phone, before climbing onto the blue accent chair. “… I’m doing good, I was just eating my lunch!” Pink explained, pressing the phone closer to her ear. “… I had a peanut butter jelly sandwich and strawberries! What are you having for lunch?… That sounds good. Apples are my second favorite fruit!…”

Pink ran her finger across the phone cord as she listened to her mothers speak. “… They’re nice…” Pink answered, glancing over to Bec and then over to Pearl. “… Rebecca’s is going to take me to the pool later on, but I have to wait a little bit because I just ate… okay, mommy I know…” 

“…Wait mommy! I want to tell you something before you go! Do you think we can go to that park next to the river tomorrow?…” The smile on Pink’s face immediately faded into frown as she heard her mother's response. 

“… What do you mean you have to go back to work tomorrow?! I don’t want you to go!…” Pink wailed, slamming her fist onto the armrest of the chair. 

“Noooo! _I don’t want you to go_!” Pink shouted before letting out an ear piercing scream into the phone. Tossing the phone over her shoulder, Pink threw herself onto the floor, kicking and flailing her legs as she cried into the floor. 

Hearing the commotion going on in the living room, Yasmin stepped out of the kitchen and peered into the living room, where Bec was kneeling on the floor, trying her best to console the distraught girl. 

“It’s okay, it's okay!” Bec tried to console, desperately trying to find a way to calm Pink down. “Um… why don’t you talk to your mom?” Bec suggested, pointing over the telephone that was dangling over the desk.

“No!” Pink bawled, pushing herself away from Bec. 

Standing up, Bec up the dangling telephone and held it to her ear. “I—I’m sorry, she’s upset and I was trying to calm her down…” 

Getting up from the floor, Pink stomped her way back over to the dining table. Rubbing her tears away, Pink climbed back on her seat and pushed away her empty plate of food. 

“Are you going to eat those?” Pink asked, pointing to the last two strawberries on Pearl’s plate. 

Pearl pushed her plate of her to Pink, who loudly sniffed before eating both of the strawberries.

Collecting the girls empty plate, Yasmin exchanged a look with Pearl, who was just as confused as she was. Just a minute ago Pink was having a full blown tantrum, and now, she was eating strawberries as if nothing had happened.

Yasmin let out a heavy sigh. It was going to be a long day. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the process of editing this chapter went from like 5000 words to 11000. Idk how that happened but ok


	6. New Years Eve Champagne

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning : Domestic abuse  
> Hotline number: 1-800-799-7233 (US only) 
> 
> A note on trigger warnings in TWAWKI: As I changed the books rating to mature, this fanfic will include some trigger warning. I will ALWAYS warn about possible trigger warnings in the notes before the chapter starts. In the actual chapter, I will in include asterisks (this symbol *) at the beginning and end of the trigger warning scene. Today’s trigger warning is pretty vague, as I will make most of them out to be, but please stay safe and proceed with your caution! As always a number to call will always be included.

Through the cracked glass door of the balcony, the smell of cigarette smoke wafted into the room, making Yelena cringe at the all too familiar scent. The fumes had been hanging around the room for a while, the source coming from Bianca and her friends, socializing and smoking as they hung outside on the balcony.

Bianca had graciously offered Yelena a cigarette of her own before she had gone outside, but Yelena had naturally declined. She wasn’t fond of cigarettes at all, and with their toxic taste and fumes, Yelena wasn’t willing to try them. She much rather stay inside and plainly enjoy the party around her, preferring sips of champagne over puffs of chemicals. 

Like always when it came to the holiday season, Bianca was willing to throw a party every occasion, including one for the holiday happening today. While it was slow at first, Bianca’s New Years Eve party was starting to gain some traction, with the majority of guests arriving fashionably late as expected.

The original time of the party was set for one hour earlier, but because of the nature of this holiday, the city was filled with traffic from the influx of tourists. Yelena had tried to beat the traffic herself by leaving beforehand, but the commute was still horrible despite it being early on in the evening. 

Despite all the traffic, Yelena still was one of the first few people to arrive at the party, along with a few other employees who were trying to make a good impression. Even with the party being held at the top floor of the office building, the guest list wasn’t strictly forced on having a job at Diamond Corp. Bianca had invited her rich socialite friends as well, creating a true hodgepodge of people attending the party. 

At the current moment, the party was starting to fill up with people, but that didn’t mean Yelena had anyone in specific to talk to. Her one connection to new people was still out on the balcony, and without her, Yelena wasn’t about to go socializing on her own.

Yelena always had company employees to converse with, but she much preferred to keep things work professional, finding no use in making relations with anyone working underneath her. And while Bianca’s friends were anything but work related, Yelena could find them a little too pretentious for her taste.

She was perfectly fine with being by herself at the moment, relaxing at the less populated corner of the room, enjoying the city skyline view she saw through the balcony. Bianca and her friends were mostly blocking it as they chatted on the rooftops, but that was a problem that clearly would last long. With the cold temperatures out tonight, they could only last as long as their cigarettes, especially with their glitzy party dresses.

Once their cigarettes turned to ash, Bianca had led the group back inside, bringing cold winter air and traces of cigarette smoke with them. While most of her friends were focused on warming up, Bianca was more interested in greeting her recently arrived guests, quickly ditching her old group for the newly formed one at the center of the party.

Unlike her other group from before, Yelena was actually familiar with a few faces standing in the crowd, recognizing a shareholder and his wife, and one of Bianca’s friends from Wall Street.

With Bianca now there, Yelena felt much more comfortable to thrust herself into the conversation, finding the sudden rush of courage to walk herself over there. But as Yelena started to make her way over towards them, the elevator had suddenly opened, drawing her eye to an all too familiar person.

Turning back on her heel, Yelena had hurried back to her isolated spot in the room, praying she wasn’t spotted by the one person she was desperately trying to ignore. She didn’t dare to look back into that direction until she had returned to the safety of her corner, only finding the confidence to only do so once she knew for a fact that she was hidden far away. 

Stepping out of the elevator was, of course, Blair Dorsey, who was dressed to the nines with her long sleeved cocktail dress. In comparison to what others were wearing, her cobalt colored dress was more on the modest side, eligible for a work party while also being suitable for other casual events. 

And while it was a casual piece, Blair had dressed her outfit up for the occasion, adding a large silver necklace to her sweetheart neckline, embedded with all sizes of sapphire colored stones. Even from far away, Yelena could see how the necklace sparkled underneath all the party lights, showing the true quality of the gems. 

As a minute passed, Blair continued to stand in front of the now closed elevator, completely unsure of what to do next. By the way she was scanning around the room, she was clearly looking for someone familiar enough to be around, just like Yelena did a few moments prior.

Even though she was far away, Yelena could recognize the flash of worry painted across Blair’s pretty features, telling her true nervousness when it came to finding her sense of belonging. 

After that disaster of a dinner, Yelena had forced herself not even to think about Blair, trying her best to avoid her in her entirety. But now that she was in her line of sight again, Yelena couldn’t help but want to let her in again, allowing herself to think of Blair, to sympathize with her.

She allowed herself to cave, but that didn’t mean Yelena wanted herself to be seen doing so. As Blair searched around the entire room, her eyes had unexpectedly landed on Yelena’s back corner, catching Yelena completely off guard. Yelena had immediately torn her eyes away from Blair, praying that she hadn’t been caught staring.

In her fear of being noticed, Yelena pretended to be occupied with someone else, turning her gaze away from Blair for a while. But eventually curiosity got the best of her, causing Yelena to turn back over to Blair’s direction.

In the time Yelena had turned a blind eye, Bianca must have recognized Blair's presence, because when Yelena had brought her attention back over to the front half of the room, Blair was talking to the sole CEO herself. 

Bianca had clearly invited her into her little group, bringing Blair to the center of everyone’s attention by complimenting her chunky silver necklace. In the familiar way she would cross boundaries with everyone, Bianca had lifted up the necklace chain from Blair’s neck, singing out praises to the coveted piece of jewelry.

Blair, of course, had beamed under all the flattery, her face lighting up into a pretty smile that made Yelena’s face burn with admiration.

Yelena doesn’t allow the feeling to last long, trying her best to distract her mind by focusing on her champagne glass. But in the whirlwind of Blair, Yelena can’t help but think back to her, wondering when and how Bianca and Blair ended up becoming such great friends. 

It would have been easy for Yelena to miss their newly formed friendship, because after all this time, Yelena was still avoiding Blair as if she were the plague. Their dinner together had happened almost a month ago, and in the time between, Yelena was beyond mortified to even show her face around Blair. 

Without talking, the two of them had collectively decided to pretend that neither one of them existed, acting as they knew nothing of each other at all. Yelena had gone to new extremes when it came to avoiding Blair, changing her entire work routine just out of the fear of it. 

Instead of coming to work just shy of an half an hour early like she used to do, Yelena would come to work as soon as the building opened at seven, so early that the janitors were still cleaning around. Her fear was being trapped alone in an elevator with Blair, or just to be trapped in any space with Blair. Break room, bathroom, Yelena avoided all, unless in an absolute necessity. 

For the most part, avoiding Blair had been successful, at least until the two of them were set to attend a business meeting together. Yelena didn’t even know that Blair's presence was even required for that type of meeting, so she had let all of her precautions slip, proceeding her routine as she normally would.

In her habit of punctuality, Yelena had arrived early to the conference room, expecting no one to be in the room almost ten minutes prior to the actual meeting. 

And to her surprise, Yelena was very wrong. As soon as she stepped foot into the room, Yelena had spotted Blair at the end of the long conference table, her attention quickly drawn towards Yelena as she just entered the room. 

Their eye contact had lasted a split second, a slip up on both of their parts. But besides the awkwardness of that, it wasn’t the worst part of being stuck in a room together. As much as Yelena wanted to run out the room, she had already been spotted by Blair, meaning she had to accept her fate and endure the painful silence between them. 

By now, they were used to ignoring each other, but not when it came to being directly in each other's faces. The time spent sitting in the conference room felt excruciating, pretending to be strangers when they clearly weren’t, waiting at the second for another employee to come in and help break the tension for them. 

And with no distraction to keep her mind off of Blair, Yelena couldn’t help herself from spiraling, reliving every humiliating moment from the dinner and beyond. 

At that moment Yelena truly wanted to disappear, for her body to suddenly poof into vapor and be as transparent as air. Even as time progressed and the meeting came with its people and space, Yelena still had to fight her urge to disappear completely, to run straight out of the office building and over to her car, to drive cross country and start a brand new life at a brand new city, complete with an alias and everything. 

In hindsight, the idea was truly stupid when Yelena thought about it now, but in the moment, she was just trying to protect herself. She truly felt vulnerable at that date of time, even if she hated admitting the truth of it to herself.

It stung so deeply to expose herself like that, to lose all self control as she recklessly revealed her deepest darkest secret to someone who she barely even knew. Even now, as Yelena watched Bianca and Blair talk from afar, it felt like a slap to the face to know that they were closer than ever, to have her secret waved right in front of her, just waiting to slip out and ruin her life forever. 

Even before the moment she had figured out the word for it, Yelena knew that this was something she had to keep to herself. She had to repress her feelings to protect herself, especially as a young child with only negative experiences and slurs tied to the word. 

_____

One of her most vivid memories about her sexuality happened in the summer of sixty-nine, when Yelena was only thirteen years old. She was still very much a child at that age, even though her mother had now expected her to act like an adult overnight. 

Her mother was incredibly traditional when it came to her values, insisting that Yelena was now mature enough to take on her ‘natural’ duties that came with being a woman, to help along with all the cooking and housework. 

At that age, Yelena was more rebellious and stubborn than she was now, desperately clinging on to her last freedoms of childhood for as long as possibly could. But her old childish habits didn’t die out as fast as her mother wanted them to, causing her to get in trouble for small, trivial things. Things that wouldn’t get her in trouble if she were a boy. 

On this particular day, Yelena was truly feeling the effects of her current punishment. This time she had been grounded for a month, for punching Tony Hoffman after he had placed a worm in her hair. The neighborhood boys were always known to roughhouse, but once Yelena had done so, it was now considered too ‘inappropriate’ and too ‘indecent’ for a girl her age.

She was only trying to defend herself, but her mother heard none of it, expecting Yelena to take the torment with a smile, because according to her, boys who pick on you only do it because they like you. 

No matter how many times her mother tried to convince her daughter otherwise, Yelena would stand guard with her own opinion, regretting none of her actions. But her mother could only tolerate her daughter’s tenacity for so long, quickly wearing Yelena down by forcing her to do the household chores without any escape.

And on that specific summer day, Yelena could remember just how desperate she was to leave that house. With the fiery tensions of her father suddenly appearing at their house after disappearing for days, she wanted nothing more than to run outside and distract herself with the neighborhood kids.

While her parents were busy in the other room screaming at each other, Yelena had looked out the window, longingly watching a group of her friends riding their bicycles down the cul-de-sac, their squeals of joy heard of through the sounds of her parents arguing. 

With her parents so occupied, Yelena could have slipped out of the house completely unnoticed. It would have been so easy for her to escape, with the front door unlocked, and with her bike leaning up against the large oak tree on her front lawn. But it was too risky for her to do so, and with her mother beyond mad, it wasn’t worth revoking her outside privileges completely.

At that moment, Yelena had to turn away from the living room window, the temptation of running away far too great. Instead, Yelena had sat on the floor of the living room, turning her focus to the television in hopes of drowning out the sounds of parents further.

By now, Yelena was used to this, the constant fighting, her parents disdain. How her father would come home drunk and in a rage, ready to take it all out on his wife by using her as a punching bag. It was a horrifying experience to constantly witness, but at her young age, there was nothing in her power she could do to stop it. The best thing she could have done, was just to ignore it all, stay out of the situation so it wouldn’t escalate to something worse. 

But to ignore everything was a lot easier said than done, especially when her father screamed out every curse word in the book. Running away from the house was the only true way to escape all the commotion, but with her predicament at the time, Yelena had to make do with the television. 

The low drone of the newscaster on screen was no match for her father, but Yelena still listened to every dull word the reporter said. The specifics of what she was watching was an indistinguishable memory, but her thirteen year old self had followed along intently to the news report, desperate to hear something else besides screaming. 

While it was somewhat effective in the short term, the television wouldn’t serve as her escapism forever. Her parents’ argument would come to its eventual boiling point, the moment of contention where all hell broke loose. Her mother, who had kept her rage under wraps the entire time, had finally snapped at her husband, responding with the same disrespect he was so prone to give her. Like Yelena, her mother could only hold back her anger for so long before exploding into something monstrous. 

After her mother had screamed through her tirade of choice words, the house went silent, deadly silent. And for a split second in time, Yelena was naive enough to think that it all was over.

*

The rude awakening came moments later, the sound of a hand hitting skin, her mother’s painful cry. Fear had raced through Yelena’s body, her heart left pounding in the aftermath.

Her mother had wailed out in fear, her words unintelligible as she pleaded for her husband to stop, trying everything in her power to prevent him from putting his hands on her again. With how distraught her mother was, Yelena had almost expected her father to hit her again, squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for the terrible sounds of hitting and crying to happen again.

But unlike what she had originally anticipated, no more sounds of fighting ever came, allowing Yelena to open her back up once she realized that they were in the clear. Instead, the entire house shook as her parents bedroom door was pushed open, her father’s looming shadow creeping down the hallway and over to the hardwood floor of the living room. 

“That’s what you get for not doing my laundry, you stupid bitch!” Her father had yelled into the room, the sound of him spitting clearly coming afterwards. 

*

He couldn’t have walked away without getting one last jab in, only doing so to make his wife more distraught as her sobs grew even louder than before. Another sick power move to remind her of where she belonged. 

As her father trudged down the hallway, his heavy footsteps had caused the floorboards to squeak, loudly announcing his presence as he entered into the living room. At the first signs of his appearance, Yelena had turned away from his direction, acting as if she were oblivious to everything going on. Her father had never hit her before whenever he was angry, but Yelena wasn’t willing to figure out if he ever would. 

Once her father had entered the living room, he had quickly turned his attention to Yelena, watching her with narrowed eyes before he had continued to stomp through the living room. Before he had an alcohol problem, her father was once naturally lean and tall like Yelena was, but after his addiction of beer and hard liquors, he was unusually heavyset.

After that fight, he was clearly in no mood to stick around the house, practically throwing the front door out of his way as he stumbled down the porch steps and over to his car parked in the driveway. In his drunkenness, he had forgotten to close the front door, allowing Yelena to have the full view of him getting in the car and pulling out of the driveway, almost hitting a poor kid on his bike during the process. 

Without realizing it, that encounter would be one of the last few times she would even see her father. By the end of the summer, her father would disappear completely, abandoning Yelena and her mother without a trace or clue.

But in that current moment, Yelena’s mind wasn’t wrapped up with her father leaving, it was busy with the fear of her father returning. She didn’t dare to move from her spot on the floor until the coast was completely clear, taking the neighborhood kids returning to the center of the road as her true sign of safety to get up and close the door. 

Despite there being no immediate threat or danger, adrenaline had still coursed through Yelena’s veins, causing her to run to the front entrance and quickly close up the front door. The house fell quiet as all noise from outside was shut out, her mother sobs and the soft humming of the television only to be heard. 

She couldn’t stand to hear her mother cry, so as Yelena made her way back to her spot on the floor, she had turned the volume of the television up higher, the cheerful chimes of commercials overpowering her mother’s faint cries and whimpers.

Yelena had learned it was best to leave her mother alone after incidents like these. In her own anger of being punched and pushed around, her mother was prone to take it all out on Yelena, creating verbal arguments of her own. While it was nothing to the extremes of her father, Yelena hated getting to that point with her mother, especially when wounds were still open and fresh. 

At that age in particular, it was extremely frustrating for Yelena to watch the acceptance of her mother’s abuse, how she would often welcome it with open arms. In her habit of rejecting everything traditional, Yelena didn’t think that leaving a marriage would be so hard, especially when it meant safety. 

Her perspective of the world was still very much naive at the time, the harsh realities untapped and unlearned. As Yelena grew older, she learned that society wasn’t kind to women who were trying to leave a loveless marriage. No matter what the situation was, a man was needed in order to maintain a survivable life. 

Without a man by your side, there would be no bank accounts, no mortgages or houses in your sole name. And if you were able to find a possible loophole through that system, you were still met with the shame of your community, notably when it came to living in a small, suburban-like town, just like where Yelena and her mother resided. 

The eventual talk of town, a woman who’s  _ divorced _ , the gossip of all housewives alike, a scary thought for someone as orthodox as her mother. 

It took some experience as an adult for Yelena to sympathize with her mother, to understand her true reason for staying. It was just easier for her to pretend that everything was perfect, to put on smiles for others wives on the cul-de-sac, to act happy, to hide your true feelings. Her mother grew up in a world where she wasn’t taught to question anything, to stay compliant just like a perfect woman should. 

And for a thirteen year old Yelena to blame most of it on her mother, clearly wasn't the right solution to fix the problem. But in her anger she was blind, indifferent to the growing changes around her. In the time that she had been alive, the world had changed so drastically, opportunities arrived and accepted, fighting to make a new and permanent change. 

As an adult, the world Yelena knew was different to her mother’s. She wouldn’t need a man to secure her house, or a car or anything that required a contact of the sort. Yelena was able to live her life out single and free, with a career chosen out of opportunities that never could be dreamed of by the women before her. It was everything she wanted after living with her mother, who was so opposed to everything the lifestyle would present to her. 

But during that moment as a teen, in the aftermath of her parents fighting, the future and its possibilities didn’t matter at all. Her outrage was the only thing she could focus on, her growing temper boiling and bubbling to the surface. 

With her anger rising to alarming levels, Yelena needed to take her frustration out on something. Her hands had gravitated over to the side seam of her dress, grasping at the strands of string unraveling from the stitch on the dress, just waiting to be pulled apart.

Her mother was the one who had sewn the dress together in the first place, hand making the entire piece by herself. Like with every piece she would sew, the dress was made with impeccable quality, made to last until Yelena had outgrown it. But with the way Yelena liked to play, there were times where her dresses wouldn’t hold up to the natural wear and tear of her outside adventures. 

Her mother had considered her old enough to repair her dresses on her own, but sewing just wasn’t something Yelena had a knack for. Unlike her mother’s clean and straight stitches, Yelena’s would create jagged lines that would unravel completely, even when she was trying her hardest to be neat and precise like her mother. Eventually, Yelena would just give up when it came to being perfect, sewing horribly just to spite her mother.

She had attempted to fix the side seam of this dress, with terrible results to say the least. Both ends of her mended seam were starting to unravel, and with one gentle pull, the string had removed itself from the fabric completely.

In the heat of her anger, Yelena wasn’t willing to stop there. She was ready to pull apart the rest of the side seam, to hear the satisfying snap of strings being pulled apart. But before she could go to that extreme, the sound of the television had caught Yelena’s eye, bringing her attention back to the box-like screen. 

The incessant commercials had finally come to its end, transitioning back to the dull and somber atmosphere of the news program. Coincidentally, her mother had appeared out of her bedroom at the same time, which in part, made Yelena thankful for the distraction of the television. If it wasn't for the sudden change in program, she would have continued to rip open her dress, which would definitely have gotten her in big trouble with her mother. 

Yelena paid no mind to her mother as she entered the living room, keeping her eyes on the television to avoid making any contact. On screen, the newscaster had flipped his stack of papers over to the next story, taking a brief moment to clear his throat before continuing on. 

Despite this happening years ago, Yelena could remember it all so vividly, from the newscaster’s serious face, to his stern and monotonous voice. In the matter of seconds, he would deliver the news report that would turn Yelena’s entire world upside down, sparking a battle of questioning that would continue for years. 

“Four policemen were injured after raiding a bar down in Greenwich Village, Empire City.” The newscaster began, his voice loud and clear throughout the living room. “According to the police department, the officers were attacked by a mob of men, angered after they were kicked out of an reportedly ‘homosexual’ bar.”

As soon Yelena heard the word, she could feel all the air being sucked out of her lungs, the feeling of panic filling up the void. She had froze at sudden remembrance of her mother being in the same room, the volume of the television loud enough to where both the report and the word was unmissable. 

At that moment, Yelena already expected a tirade of hate to come out of her mother as she stormed across the living room and over to where Yelena was sitting. But what her mother would do next, would truly feel like a sucker punch to her gut, despite it being mild mannered. 

With her index finger, her mother had pressed the small off button of the television, the black and white picture disappearing with a flash. On the now black screen, Yelena’s mirrored reflection looked back at her, wide eyed and pale with fear. 

“Yelena,” Her mother called, giving the familiar warning of asking her daughter to look her up in the eyes. 

With her disciplinary tone of voice, Yelena knew better than not to comply, finding the strength to move her paralyzed body by tilting her head upwards towards her mother.

Her mother had stood with her arms crossed over her body, her hazel eyes glared and her blonde eyebrows furrowed, the same look of anger she had passed on to her child. But beside her mother’s look of disapproval, Yelena couldn’t help but notice how the left side of her face was tinted cherry red, clearly the place where her father had struck her earlier. 

In a vague attempt to cover everything up, her mother had added a visible layer of powder foundation across her face, lessening the true alarming nature of her bruise. For second, it had distracted Yelena from thinking about her mother’s upcoming reaction to the news, the rude awakening coming once again when her mother had cleared her throat.

“What on earth were you watching?” Her mother demanded, her words coming out more like a statement than a question.

Yelena had suddenly found her throat to be extremely dry, forcing her to swallow the thick knot that formed in the back of her throat before she could blurt out her answer. 

“The news…”

Her mother clearly wasn’t satisfied with her daughter's response, even though it was the truth. As soon Yelena delivered her answer, her mother’s temper had seemed to raise a notch, specifically mad at her daughter’s overly strange behavior.

“You know where people like  _ that _ go to?” Her mother had spat, her voice bitter and sour with acid. 

She had left the question hanging in the air for a moment, making Yelena unsure if she was the one who was supposed to answer it for her. But before Yelena could make up her mind, her mother had continued on for her, fuming with the answer Yelena had expected of her.

“They go to hell.” She insisted, her harsh reminder stabbing Yelena deep, just like a knife. 

These words weren’t unfamiliar to Yelena at all. If the rare conversation came up, the utterance was definitely said, all in the effort of her mother scaring her otherwise. 

Her mother had always known, maybe even before Yelena had realized it herself. 

When Yelena was younger, she had a reckless way of telling about it, unfiltered like most kids were. She would just plainly state how she didn’t like boys, but of course, her comments weren't met with any seriousness. It made her mother laugh at first, causing her to smile as she would explain to her four year old daughter, on how she would grow to like boys as she got older.

Her mother's statement would never come true. Four grew to six, which blossomed into nine, and even at that age, Yelena still held the same feelings as she did before. But with her older age, she had a lot more self discovery than she did before, discovering her admiration for girls instead.

At that age, it was still too complicated for Yelena to comprehend, especially when she had never seen or heard of anything like that before. She had kept that secret to herself, but it was a lot harder to hide her disdain of liking boys in a romantic way. 

Yelena would much rather have a boy be her friend, than be her boyfriend. (Italics) She had plenty of friends around the neighborhood that were boys, a lot more in comparison to girls. Somehow, girls her age were a lot harder to talk to than boys, leaving Yelena flustered with strange panicky feelings whenever she interacted with a few girls in particular.

But hanging around the boys led to the biggest misconception, that she was actually interested in them. Especially as she got older, the neighborhood wives would often joke about Yelena being their son’s future wife, recurring banter that they considered harmless and fun, but was incredibly infuriating to Yelena.

Even as a child, she was already expected to be of a wife, and nothing else of greater importance. She was just starting to see the world as it is, with all its strange customs and expectations. Already, it was frustrating to see herself underestimated, belittled down to a requirement. She had so much more to offer than an obligation, and yet no one seemed to care about that, not even her mother.

It took a couple more incidents like that one for Yelena to stop complaining about it to her mother. It wouldn’t take long for her to realize that her mother was just like the people she would rant and grumble about, stuck on the belief that women only belonged at one place only, the home.

Her mother was the epitome of tradition, staying at home and cooking and cleaning, with the occasional side hobby of tailoring and sewing commissions. If it wasn’t for Yelena’s father blowing their money away on booze, her mother wouldn’t have worked for money at all. 

But despite all the evidence being presented all in front of her, Yelena was convinced that she could get her mother to see her point of view, and possibly even change her mind. But with her mother being just a stubborn as she was, that clearly wasn’t an easy feat.

One day, after her mother made a marriage comment of her own, Yelena had sat her down to talk about how she didn’t want to be married. The conversation had started off normal at first, but it had quickly escalated into heated exchange. In her anger of her mother disapproving otherwise, Yelena had screamed out how she didn’t like boys in the first place, revealing much more than she had intended to.

And instead of accepting her daughter’s statement with the same giggles and smiles she gave when Yelena was child, her mother had received her answer with rage, practically fuming at the answer as told her daughter that she had no choice but to comply.

She had to officially know at that moment, after all, the majority of signs had been already shared. How Yelena begged to cut her long hair short like a boy, or how she despised the frills and limited mobility of dresses. 

The puzzle pieces had clearly clicked in after that moment, and from there on out, her mother made sure to keep her daughter in the place where she thought a girl should belong. No dramatic haircuts, only occasional trims to the ends of Yelena’s medium length hair. No pants and only dresses, even though that was a rule that was already strictly enforced in the first place. And along with that, came the constant reminder of what she would become one day, a wife to a husband.

While Yelena had found her mother’s house rules to be stupid, she quickly had found a way to avoid all the scolding that came with wanting to defy them. When it came down to specifics, her mother would only share her disapproval if Yelena was the one to bring the subject up, so after discovering that pattern, Yelena began to keep her complaints to herself.

No matter how hard she tried, her mother could not shake Yelena’s views, even with the challenge of not being able to express them out loud. Yelena had continued to stand her ground, resilient until her mother found the perfect way to break her down, to talk poorly of homosexuality. 

Yelena herself was incredibly sensitive to the topic, so deeply insecure about that unknown part of herself. No matter what age she was, it was one of the few ways for Yelena to shut down completely, scared of the verbal and violent hate that would come with it. 

So to hear those words come out of her mother’s mouth, had truly hurt Yelena in the moment, those words holding much more meaning than what her mother originally said.  _ I hate you too, because you are just like them _ . 

It took willpower to hold back tears, to push away the terrible feeling of emotion pulling down on her throat. But of course, her mother wasn’t done with just that, moving on to the next thing that would purposefully tear down at her daughter. 

“And how many times do I have to tell you not to sit like that when you're wearing a dress? Sit like a lady!” Her mother scolded, pointing a finger towards Yelena’s splayed legs.

As soon as her mother had mentioned it, Yelena had quickly fixed her posture, moving her legs from their relaxed position of sitting up with one knee up in the air, to the stiff, decent way she was supposed to sit whenever she was wearing a dress. If it were a different day, Yelena would have most definitely fought back, answering back with her own point of sitting however she wanted in the privacy of her own home. 

She was so close to crying, that arguing with her mother would definitely bring her to the point of her tearing up. After all, it was her mother’s goal to see her break down over this, which was something Yelena refused to let her mother have the satisfaction of viewing. 

After that final jab, her mother had nothing left else to say, twisting her lips into a memorable frown and she turned her way towards the divided section of the room that was the kitchen. Even as her mother left, Yelena had stayed put on her spot on the floor, staring at the dark screen of the television in wonder. 

Her mind couldn’t help but wander back to the news report, an event that would be shrouded in mystery until Yelena would do the research herself later on as an adult. But until that point in time, Yelena didn’t dare to turn the television back on. 

_____

Anger burned in the pit of Yelena’s stomach as she downed her last bit of her champagne. She didn’t want her brain to go back to that dark pit in her mind, especially since she wasn’t at the safety of her own apartment.

Feelings and memories as tumultuous as these, were reserved for a certain time, alone on sleepless nights, in a secure place where heavy emotions could be let free. Not around parties and occasions where Yelena was strongly held in appearance.

But these thoughts weren’t light enough to ignore, causing Yelena to spiral down to her dark place. She hated how she brought this to herself in public, especially when there were hundreds of people potentially watching. Yes, she was still in her isolated corner of the room, but she probably looked weird to most as she stood and sulked alone. 

She eventually came to her rude awakening somehow, a flash of blue in the corner of her eye snapping her away from her depressive funk. The cobalt color had sent blaring alarms to Yelena's head, her gut instinct warning her about what was coming her way. 

As prompted, Yelena had turned her towards the direction, not expecting much to begin with. But turns out, her body was right to warn her in the first place, as Blair was heading straight towards the area of the room she was standing in. 

Blair’s appearance had immediately caused Yelena to turn away, her heart pounding as she quickly tried to find another spot in the room where she could run and hide. Panic had instantly clouded her mind as she frantically scanned around the crowded room, finding herself freezing with horror as she realized that there was no other safe place for her to run and hide to.

While Blair was a little too close for comfort, there was still a good, sizable distance in between the two, just far enough as to where Blair was simply unaware of Yelena’s presence at all. 

Despite there being less than a few people around that area of the room, Blair’s was clearly focused on heading over to the bar, which was along the center wall Yelena was leaning against. Instead of turning her attention over to her surroundings, Blair was preoccupied with digging through the contents of her clutch, searching for a much needed item she stepped straight towards the bar. 

It turned out to be a huge sigh of relief to see that Blair hadn’t noticed Yelena right away, giving the perfect opportunity for Yelena to rethink her plan of escaping. As long as the two continued to stay in the same area of the room, they’d run the risk of bumping into each other, which was something Yelena truly wanted to avoid. 

She wasn’t sure on where she wanted to go next, but Yelena knew that she definitely wanted to move away from her dark and depressive, pity party of a corner. But before Yelena could find the absolute courage to walk away, she had to turn back to Blair, justifying her reasoning with wanting to make sure her escape route was clear. 

As expected, Blair was still absorbed with her clutch, but it was truly something else beyond her that caught Yelena's attention. Coming from across from the room, was a person that Yelena unfortunately knew all too well of, causing her to stay put in her place. 

Infamously known for his many complaints and incidents around the office, was John Hessonite, a tall and burly employee who had been working in the marketing department for at least a year now. 

John Hessonite was the last person Yelena could think of when it came to being the perfect Diamond Corp employee, his name not even coming to mind. He had been hired without Yelena’s knowledge, appointed to be a part of the marketing team by the person who once held Blair’s position, for immediate reasons that Yelena did not know of.

John was incredibly lucky to have been hired by someone else, because if it had been up to Yelena, he would never have gotten the position in the first place. He was well known around the office for wandering around the floor at unprecedented times, slacking off from his work and flirting with the women in the office instead. 

After dealing with multiple work related incidents, Yelena had grown to dislike his annoyingly loud and arrogant behavior. He was smug in a mocking and egotistical way, looking down at other employees as if he were way smarter than everyone else. He had even dared to pull that stunt with Yelena, which wasn’t met with his usual accepting response. Since then, he acted more cautious around Yelena, but clearly not well behaved enough to stay out of trouble.

And speaking of trouble, John was clearly looking for some as he came towards Blair, who was still somewhat busy as she continued to search through her clutch. As John slowly neared her, Blair was just as inattentive, a look of frustration crossing over her features as she was having trouble finding what she was looking for. 

Even from far away, Yelena could tell that Blair’s small clutch was packed to the brim, a few dollars peeking out from the inside along with the recognizable outer packaging of a tampon. As Blair dug deeper into the bag, she was clearly trying to stop all the content of her clutch from spilling out, stopping her brisk walk to search further.

But with how stuffed her clutch was, it was almost inevitable for something to spill out of her bag, despite all of Blair’s efforts to control it all. A tube of lipstick had eventually managed to escape from her bag, bouncing onto the floor and landing on the carpet in front of her. 

At the sight of the lipstick falling onto the ground, Blair had immediately pulled her lips into a pout, muttering something under her breath as she crouched down to pick the silver tube up. 

If you wanted to call it chance and not perversion, John had ‘coincidentally’ decided to approach Blair at this moment, his legs brushing up against Blair’s backside as she had picked the tube of lipstick up from the floor. 

At the sudden, unexpected touch, Blair’s body had jerked forward, her tube of lipstick flying from her hand once again. But instead of reaching for it a second time, Blair had jumped up from her crouched position, standing up to her full height as she turned around to face her culprit. 

And of course, as Blair had defensively turned around, John immediately put on the fakest apology Yelena had ever seen, acting as if the entire matter was an accident despite being the one who placed himself on Blair in the first place.

John had a cunning way of going about it, pretending to be coy and remorseful as he gave a somewhat of a convincing apology. Telling lies that were easy enough for Yelena to detect since she had witnessed the whole ordeal, but laced with the poison of sounding so truthful that he had easily convinced Blair that he was being sincere. 

It was somewhat frustrating for Yelena to watch, to see Blair accept all of his apologies in her habit of being overly polite. As the only possible witness to the entire event, Yelena wanted more than anything to go over there and scream out the truth, to tell Blair about how John had intentionally bumped into her with a satisfied smirk on his face. 

The only thing that was truly stopping Yelena, was her previous tensions with both members of the party. While Yelena could easily face John on any day, approaching Blair would be a drastically different story. 

After that horrible mistake of kiss, the two could barely stand in the same room together, so to go over there and act all friendly in an attempt to whisk Blair away, would be too awkward to bear, especially if Yelena lost her cool and went to her original plan of screaming at John.

With all the possibilities of a plan like that, it was considered way too risky for someone of Yelena’s taste. Usually she was all about risks when it came to the business, but when it came down to something as personal as this, any unexpected curveball could paralyze Yelena with fear. 

Blair held to much power by knowing her secret, and it made possible interactions terrifying. It was incredibly selfish of Yelena to leave Blair alone in a situation like this, especially when she had the power to swoop in and get her out of it. But doubt had a funny way of playing with her mind, convincing her that Blair would want help from someone like  _ her _ , and how her helpful behavior could be easily construed as flirty or jealous. 

The two sides of her mind were busy arguing with each other, guilt mixing in with the unknown fear as no clear decision came. But thankfully, as Yelena continued to watch on, she saw that Blair was trying to find the means of escaping herself, which turned out to be a huge relief on Yelena’s part.

Apologies had quickly turned into conversation starters, trapping Blair in a discussion she clearly wasn’t keen on being in herself. For the sake of being polite, Blair was engaging as lightly as she could, wanting to make it clear that she wanted her distance.

But while her body language was obvious in showing that she was disinterested, John had ignored every sign of it, stringing Blair along into another long winded conversation where she barely had time to speak herself. Surprisingly, John was smart enough to know that Blair wasn’t one to interrupt, trying to keep her to himself as long as he possibly could. 

But his plan clearly wasn’t as full proof as he made it out to be in his dim little head. Eventually Blair did find the courage to speak out on what she had been dying to say all along, giving a quick reason as to why she had to go. 

For just a brief second, John was left dumbfounded over Blair's sudden burst of courage, which in turn gave Blair the perfect opportunity to make her escape. But before Blair could have the chance to fully walk away, she only managed to turn on her heel before John had suddenly snapped back to reality, hooking his arm to her waist to stop her from moving any further. 

Upon John’s immediate touch, Blair had stiffened, her body gone unusually rigid as John dragged her back to the place he wanted her to be. Blair’s heels had practically dragged against the carpet as John tucked her into the crook of his arm, frozen in place like a mannequin, overtaken by blatant fear.

Her face had gone pale, frozen like the rest of her body, as her lips were stuck agape. Blair’s eyes were the only things that seemed to be unstuck, moving in real time as she frantically scanned the room around her.

Despite there being nothing to look for in this part of the uncrowded room, Blair still searched, eyes desperately moving towards the bar, where the bartender was clearly too busy to notice her at all. 

With nothing else around, Blair’s eyes had quickly traveled over to Yelena’s side of the room, spotting her silhouette in record time. A look of relief had instantly crossed Blair features, her face softening as she now had someone to help get out of this situation. But as Blair did a double take, her comfort had instantly faded away, recognizing the stranger to be other than Yelena Davidson. 

A reaction like that was almost expected out of Blair, especially in a high stress situation like this one. Despite it being unfavorable, Yelena understood where that look of recoil came from, assuming she would do that herself if she were in Blair’s position. 

But deep down inside, Yelena was more or less lying to herself when it came to accepting Blair’s less than receptive reaction. She wanted to deny how much it hurt, to ignore the stinging sensation building in her chest in the effort of helping Blair. But with that, came the negative emotions she had dealt with earlier, swarming back up to her head. She couldn’t help but feel gross, considered to be disgusting by Blair.

Compared to before, Yelena didn’t allow herself to dwell on those feelings for too long, still wanting to keep a sharp eye on both John and Blair. While Yelena had taken a quick moment to process things, it clearly was enough time for Blair to give up on the hope of anyone helping her out, because as Yelena turned back to the both of them, Blair was no longer frozen in John’s arms, lively as she joined conversation. 

Blair's demeanor seemed calm enough, with her agreeing nods and tight-lipped smile. From the casual glance of a stranger, there wasn’t much to think about besides two close friends, or with the way they were standing, maybe even more than that. But Yelena could easily see through the facade, pinpointing Blair’s true discomfort.

Her face said cordial, but Blair's eyes were seething with emotion, a rage so subtle that Yelena could barely tell what it was. Like before, her body was stuck in an unnatural stiffness, practically making her look a inch taller than her original height. 

The true reason for her continued stiff behavior was John and his arm, snaked around her hips and parked at the base of her thigh. As John went on with small talk, Blair had tried to push his arm away with her elbow, subtly nudging against his arm with every little nod of her head. Yet still, John couldn’t catch the hint of her irritation, persisting with his eager flirty behavior. 

To see him act like that, simply unaware of Blair’s clear cut boundaries, was starting to grind on Yelena’s gears. Anger had built up in its familiar and fast way, leading up to its peak of being red faced with animosity.

She didn’t care if John saw, or if anyone for matter of fact. If he even dared to confront her, John would be met with a well deserved punch to the face, an unlikely extreme Yelena was willing to take at the moment.

Yelena wasn’t one to be overcomed with this much anger, but with all of the stressful and emotional events leading up to this point, she needed an outlet to deal with all the contention. 

In the alarming heat of passion, she ready for the fight, to hear the satisfying crack of her fist meeting John’s nose. To see him recoil in pain as blood dripped down his nose. 

The idea was euphoric, until it clearly wasn’t, her unusually violent thought scaring her back into place of restraint. She would never do something that brash unless she was pushed to the limit, and right now, at this New Years Eve party, watching Blair work so calmly through her own anger, was enough evidence to tell her not to indulge in something she would instantly regret. 

Even though she was able to brush those intrusive thoughts to the side, her burning anger towards John refused to diminish. To see him get away with this kind of behavior, was beyond infuriating, and to know that it clearly had happened to other women before Blair, only heightened the feeling more. 

John Hessonite was truly a disgusting human being, toying around with women if they were nothing but nothing but a discardable plaything. And to make matters worse, Yelena knew that he wasn’t a single man, discovering he was married in a much easier way than some other people had figured out.

John's wife was a memorable figure to Yelena, because she often visited the office looking for the whereabouts of her husband. If she hadn’t loudly announced her husband by name, Yelena wouldn’t have never guessed that he was married, his behavior too flirtatious to be seen as committing.

At the thought of her, Yelena had began a search around room, trying to see if John was dumb enough pull a stunt like this if he had brought his wife along as his plus two. If anything, finding his wife somewhere in the crowd would only prove one thing Yelena knew well of, scumbags like John will always get sloppy with their cheating. 

And with her second scan around the room, Yelena was right to confirm her suspicions, finding John Hessonite’s wife standing all alone on the other side of the room, staring intently at both her husband and Blair. Just from her sharp, deadly glare alone, she had been clearly watching the entire time, keeping her focus on her husband instead of enjoying the party around her. 

As often as Yelena would see her, she somehow couldn’t remember her name, racking her brain for the sound, familiar syllables waiting at the tip of her tongue. But of course, in the way names were always hard for her to remember, the word didn’t come easily, making Yelena stare at her until the name came to the face.

In a similar fashion to Yelena, John’s wife had isolated herself away from all the other guests, standing in a less popular section of the room, very preoccupied with the fact of her husband flirting with another woman. But with her disdainful look aside, she was dressed to the flashy degree of most guests of the party, wearing a pumpkin colored mini dress, showing off most of her hazel brown skin. 

Her tight ginger brown curls were styled in the popular fluffed up way most women were keen on wearing their hair. Every couple of seconds, her restless hand would run through her hair, flattening her style while also showing her true frustrated feelings.

Of course, she had to be angry at John, after all, what women wouldn’t be when faced with constant cheating? But she clearly showed the emotion in a different way, nothing like that fuming and stormy nature of Yelena’s own anger. Instead, she looked like she was on the verge of tears, eyes wide and blinking rapidly. And in that moment, her name had suddenly popped into Yelena’s mind, remembering it to be Joanna Hessonite.

Yelena felt true sympathy for Joanna, the horrible aftereffects of being cheated on clearly doing an emotional number on her. To see Joanna look so heartbroken and lost, only fueled the continuous fire of Yelena’s rage. No one deserved to be treated like that, to be blatantly disrespected by someone that was supposed to love you.

If anything, this gave Yelena another reason to to punch John in the face, the temptation rising up again. Even through her heightened anger, she obviously knew better than to act on it, expressing her disdain with a subtle declaration of sending a dirty look his way. 

Despite another added glare coming his way, John was still oblivious to any outsider opinion, only focused on wooing Blair with his humor. His method of flirting had turned into giving out horrible little jokes, forcing a reaction of fake, stunted laughter out from Blair. And somehow in his own stupidity, John had assumed Blair’s laughter to be real, a smug look growing on his face that Yelena so desperately wanted to wipe off.

Watching the two only continued to flare up her temper further, truly testing to see how long her patience could last. The only thing that was holding her up for now, was to see how crooked and misfigured John’s nose was, almost as if someone had punched him in the past to show him a lesson. Hopefully that past memory would hold John back from doing anything stupid, because if dared to do any of the extremes Yelena was thinking of, she wouldn’t hesitate to break his nose again. 

She was holding back for the sake of her own integrity, especially with all of the Diamond Corp employees around. But if this whole ordeal didn’t end sometime soon, there was a part of her willing to snap and take matters into her own hands. 

At this point, Yelena was overtaken by an unhealthy amount of anger, an uncommon occurrence that would happen only in true moments of extremes. Something so rare that Yelena could hardly recognize any other moment of times where she had felt this much rage. It had gotten to the point where she couldn’t even focus on her own surroundings, barely even noticing that someone had come and approached her side.

It was only when a cold and familiar manicured hand had pressed itself against her shoulder, had Yelena jumped back to reality, whipping her head over to her side to see what person was at hand. 

If Yelena hadn’t caught that first glance of sparkle and white, she might have blurted out a few choice words, but at the realization of it being Bianca, Yelena had instantly pressed her lips shut, immediately recognizing her signature look of displeasure. 

Bianca’s grey eyes were pulled into that dreadful glare of disapproval, her dark, crimson colored lips drawn into that all to familiar scowl. That look would usually send chills down Yelena’s spine, but at the moment she was too preoccupied with figuring out how she had possibly missed Bianca coming over to her side. After all, with her eye catching, glitter bomb of her evening gown, she was just as distracting as the disco ball hanging over Times Square.

With that comparison aside, Bianca clearly meant business by coming over, and whatever problem that was troubling her now, was wanting to resolve itself at this minute. 

“Don’t act like I didn’t notice.” Bianca declared, causing Yelena to raise one of her furrowed eyebrows in a confusion. 

Like always, Bianca was starting off without context clues, causing Yelena to scramble through her brain for the possible reason for this conversation. But before she could find it, Bianca had interrupted her train of thought, continuing on with what she was clearly dying to say all along. 

“I know something is going on between you two.” She accused, pointing a long painted fingernail over towards Blair’s direction. 

Instantly, as soon as the words came out of Bianca's mouth, Yelena’s heart had plummeted, crashing down to the bottom of her chest. For a month now, she had been teetering dangerously around this game, waiting for the moment where her career and life would be all over. And now, at this unexpected moment, it was all here. Bianca  _ knew _ and her obvious reasoning for knowing, was all because of Blair.

Bianca went silent as she waited for Yelena to respond, crossing her arms around her chest as she expected a transparent explanation from her co-founder. But with being suddenly put on the spot, along with her secret being exposed, Yelena found her mouth to be extremely dry as no sound was able to come out, her lips movingly awkward as her mind was desperate to come up with some clarification. 

Her silence had only lasted a few seconds, but clearly enough, that was too long for Bianca to tolerate any longer. In her impatience, Bianca had snapped again, showing her displeasure for the lack of clarification. 

“Whatever it is, I want it to get fixed  _ now _ .” Bianca snarled, baring her overly white teeth in a true sign of true anger. “I’m not going to let some petty misunderstanding ruin the productivity of  _ my _ company!”

With her last sentence, Bianca had pointed her sharp nail dangerously close to her chest, the action done with so much force, that it would’ve drawn blood with the simple misstep. But yet, Bianca was more focused on glowering at Yelena, sending a long, threatening glare her way before turning on her heel and storming away, the long flowing train of her evening gown trailing behind her. 

Dumbfounded, Yelena could only watch as Bianca disappeared back into the crowd, completely taken aback by her business partner’s hostility, and how there was much less of it than Yelena expected. If anything, that discussion had only left her more confused than Yelena originally was before it, leaving her with the question of what Bianca truly knew about her situation. 

Even with all the questions and possibilities brimming to the surface of her mind, Yelena was willing to brush those thoughts aside for just a moment, feeling relieved over the outcome of her and Bianca’s conversation.

While most people would find Bianca’s heated exchange to be anything but positive, Yelena was able to see the good things through, even with Bianca’s unreasonable anger. That conversation was a thousand times better than what Yelena had imagined in her head, considering it a success for the most part, since she mostly had her job intact. And after years of working with Bianca, Yelena knew what a bad conversation looked like, the one they just had now barely scratching the tip of the iceberg. 

Yelena had expected the worst, assuming that Bianca would blow up on the topic of her sexuality after mentioning the situation between her and Blair. But after seeing her mild reaction at best, along with hearing her words that came after, Yelena wasn’t sure if Bianca knew the specifics at all.

One question, burning to be answered, came quickly to Yelena’s mind. Did Blair really tell about her sexuality like Yelena had expected her to? 

Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out that answer, and it definitely wasn’t going to be an easy task for the two of them.

Taking in a deep breath, Yelena had turned back over to both John and Blair, nerves replacing the original anger of watching them together. But to her surprise, they weren't in the same, uncomfortable position that they were in before, instead the two were parted, standing with a normal distance between them as colleagues were supposed to do.

The only and obvious reason for this change, was because of the third added person to their conversation. Clearly John didn’t want to be caught doing such sleazy behavior, saving face for the person Yelena recognized to be a higher up employee at Diamond Corp. But with that being, John no longer had control on whether Blair could stay, giving her the perfect chance to escape.

In his own stupidity, John was almost certain that Blair would stay, glaringly comfortable in the concept from just his body language alone, focused on conversing instead of keeping Blair stuck in place. Her lack of involvement in the conversation was a good thing, allowing her to have a hassle free exit.

Yelena could almost see it in Blair’s eyes, how she had been thinking of this escape plan for a while now, brimming with the nervous emotions of acting on it. And with an opportunity this perfect, there was clearly no time to be stalling, so with a deep breath, Blair had placed a smile on her lips and excused herself, even when at this point, it wasn’t justified.

Before both men had time to react, Blair had turned her back and walked straight away, leaving them both in the dust of her words. While the higher up employee seemed completely unfazed, continuing on with conversation as normal, Yelena could tell that it truly bothered John, causing him to get distracted and stumble idiotically on his words. 

To see him get flustered like that was worth all the wait, probably a lot more satisfying of an outcome than her original idea of punching him in the face. But still John got what he deserved, even if it was a little too mild for Yelena’s taste. 

With all ideas of revenge aside, Yelena now wanted to focus on her problems with Blair, remembering all the cryptic and choice words that Bianca had shared to her earlier. But if she wanted to have a moment to talk with Blair, Yelena needed to act quickly, even if it was a lot easier said than done. 

Knowing John, it wouldn’t be too long before he would try to come up to Blair once again, so if Yelena really wanted to go through with the decision, she needed to act on it now. Turning her attention back over to Blair, Yelena kept an eye on her as she continued to walk away from the boys, heading over to the destination she was desperate to reach for a while now, the bar. 

After what Blair went through, a drink was understandable, hell, even the rollercoaster of stress Yelena went through was enough for the occasion of wanting another drink. And while the thought seemed extremely nice, the idea of being around Blair, along with the concept of even talking to her, was still too nerve wracking for Yelena. 

She was very conflicted, and watching Blair from afar wasn’t helping her with making a decision. Keeping an eye on Blair only made Yelena more nervous for the conversation she wanted to have, so nervous, that it made her want to chicken out of the idea completely. 

Just the thought of having a conversation like that was unbearable, especially with all of the added factors of facing Blair or having a random eavesdropping guest listening along. It would truly be a thousand times easier to avoid having the entire conversation in the first place, going on with the ignorance of pretending that there was no history at all, with nothing of the likes of a past. 

Maybe Yelena would have taken that route of cowardice if it wasn’t for the reminder of Bianca, knowing a lot more of what Yelena tried to keep hidden. She was incredibly clear with her warning, that Yelena had no choice but to fix things with Blair, whether she truly liked it or not. At this point, Yelena wasn’t willing to toy with her job for the sake of her own comfort, not when Bianca’s opinion of her sexuality was unknown. 

Yelena wasn’t even a hundred percent sure if Bianca had known of her sexuality in the first place. When she thought about it now, Bianca's whole tirade of a conversation was about Yelena fixing her work relationship with Blair, no hinting or harping at any knowledge of their kiss. It was physically impossible to know exactly what Bianca knew of unless Yelena asked herself, but truthfully, that would be a stupid idea no mater the outcome. If anything, this gave Yelena another perfect reason as to why she should go there and talk to Blair. 

Still, fear licked her nerves at the thought of talking to Blair. No matter how casual their conversation could start off, it would only lead to the inevitable, the discussion of her sexuality. That topic was something Yelena could barely tolerate on most days by herself, so having a similar talk among the presence of Blair, would be extremely humiliating, especially when given with her initial reason for kissing her. 

Without a doubt, this wasn’t an easy bridge to cross, but Yelena wasn’t helping herself either by thinking of all the negatives. At the thought of trying to search for something positive, Yelena was brought back to Bianca’s lecture, remembering her demands of not letting drama affect the productivity of the company. While that wasn’t inherently a positive reason to talk to Blair in itself, it had reminded Yelena of the overly tense workplace, bringing forth another practical reason as to hash things out with Blair. 

If they were able to solve things now, it could make the workplace a lot less stressful for both of them. With the nature of their jobs, Yelena in charge of the company’s finances and Blair head of marketing, the two were bound to work with each other eventually, so to solve all their grievances now, would make the future of a difference. Yelena would finally be able to walk around the workfloor without stepping on eggshells, to enter the office space each morning with her peace of mind.

So with that single reason alone, Yelena had finally made her decision, not overthinking it like she did moments prior. She was going to walk up to that bar, and she was going to talk to Blair. 

In the high of her decision, the rush of determination had flowed through her veins, creating enough courage to walk away from her corner of safety. As she traveled across the room, Yelena started off with a fast stride, wanting to keep her movements quick so she wouldn’t time to second guess herself. 

But as she continued her way on over to the bar, something shiny on the ground had stopped her in her tracks, a glint of metal catching her eye. Just a few feet to the side of her, was a tube of lipstick lying on the ground, recognizing it to be the same one Blair had dropped from her clutch earlier.

Taking a detour from her set route, Yelena had walked over to the lipstick, stopping only for a second to pick up the silver tube, before carrying on as usual. Inside her fist, the cool metal tube had seared against her warmth of her palm, now clammy from her slight tinge of nervousness. Adrenaline had done a good job with numbing out the emotion, but with every step she took closer, she could feel her apprehension peeking through her built up confidence. 

Being just steps away from the bar, Yelena wasn’t about to let her anxiety get to her now, pushing forward as she approached the bar, setting her champagne glass down on the countertop with just enough force to catch both of the attention of Blair and the bartender.

“I take whatever she’s taking.” Yelena announced, meeting eyes with the bartender, who had simply nodded at her request before taking away her glass to fill it up with her requested drink.

Conveniently, Blair had requested a bottle of champagne that hadn’t been opened, giving some time between the two to start their much needed conversation. But clearly, that was a lot easier said than done in practice, as tense air had fallen in between the two, neither one taking the first initiative of talking.

Despite Blair being just inches away, Yelena kept her eyes focused on the bartender, aware of the movement of blue to the right of her peripheral vision. The adrenaline, the small portion that was left of it and not overtaken by nerves, told Yelena to act, because from seeing Blair’s body language alone, it was clear that she was in no mood to start things off herself. 

Looking over her shoulder, Yelena was trying to sneak a quick glance of Blair, trying to think of something casual to start off a conversation with. With a small glimpse of an idea, Yelena was confident enough to turn to face Blair completely, ready to incite something. But clearly, Blair must have had a similar idea when it came to confronting Yelena, because as soon as Yelena had turned towards Blair, the two made immediate eye contact, causing the two to quickly shy away.

With her face heating up, Yelena had brought her attention back to the bartender, who had finished opening up the champagne bottle completely. She could feel herself getting hot with nerves, reminding her of the once cool item she tucked into her palm. 

From being held, the metal of the lipstick tube had now matched the warmth of Yelena hand, but besides that unneeded fact, it gave Yelena the perfect opportunity to start talking with Blair, an idea she hadn’t thought of when she had first picked up the lipstick.

Unraveling her fist, Yelena looked down to her open palm, noticing her fingerprints smudged against the smooth surface of the lipstick tube. Yelena had quickly rubbed the tube against the material of her pants, polishing the surface before placing it onto the counter and flicking over towards Blair’s direction.

The lipstick had hastily rolled across the wood surface of the bar counter, coming to a stop as it collided against Blair’s silver clutch. Before momentum could push it back in Yelena direction, Blair’s thin fingers took hold of it, placing it back into the opening of her unzipped clutch.

“Thank you.” came the sheepish acknowledgement Yelena wasn’t expecting at all from Blair. Her body language from earlier told that she was closed off, unwilling to do this at all. But there she was now, the one to take the first step out of the two of them. 

At the hope of her words, Yelena had turned back over to look at Blair, her face dusted with pink as she watched the bartender's steady movement of pouring out drinks.

“We need to talk.” Yelena found herself saying, keeping her voice just low enough for only Blair to hear. “But not over here.”

Even though the bartender had been preoccupied with their drinks for the entire time, Yelena had a feeling that he had picked up on their tension, assuming something was going on with the two. She didn’t want their conversation to happen here, or anywhere near the bar for matter of fact, not when they had the risk of someone listening along. 

Blair, with her eyes still locked on the bartender, gave the slight nod of head as her answer, a gesture so subtle and silent, that it could’ve been easily missed if Yelena hadn’t paid much attention. But unlike Blair, Yelena had the actual courage to look at her directly, something that Blair was still working on. 

With their plan of action already decided on, the two of them stayed quiet until the bartender had placed both of their drinks onto the bar counter, the discomfort between them way too prominent for any small talk between. As they immediately took hold of their drinks, Blair had thanked the bartender, giving him a warm smile before bringing her glass to her lips.

The bartender had instantly perked up at Blair's smile, his lips pulling into a matching smile of his own. But his reaction wouldn’t last too long as he met Yelena’s narrowed gaze, a part of the curt nod she had sent his way. Her honest attempt at being polite, turned out to be a lot more threatening than she expected. 

Stepping away from the bar, the two walked side by side as they traveled along the side of the room, keeping a sizable distance between them as they tried to avoid nearing the crowded hub of people located at the center floor. As they neared the front of the room, they both came to a stop, just a few feet away from the elevator placed against the center wall. 

Like before, neither one of them knew how to proceed with moving forward, standing stiff and awkward as they stood across from each other, eyes roaming everywhere besides one another. In their familiar practice of silence, it was clear they were both waiting for the same thing, for the other to start the conversation for them. If it truly hadn’t been for all the people around the room, Yelena wouldn’t have minded taking that first leap, after all, it was her idea to have this talk with each other in the first place.

No matter where they went inside this room, Yelena would never feel comfortable with discussing their private details out loud, even if they did move over to a less crowded part of the room. With Bianca’s extensive guest list, it was almost impossible to avoid being around people, running the risk of being overheard by a coworker, or even a complete stranger. 

Call her paranoid, but Yelena wasn't willing to take a risk like that, especially when it was involved with a career ending secret that could affect the both of them. She didn’t want Blair to get stuck in the midst of the crossfire, her business career so new and fresh, that it would be easy for Diamond Corp to let her go in the wake of scandal. And considering Yelena’s own position, a secret like this could easily brew into a company wide problem if the two were careful. 

She was acting with extreme caution, trying to think of a place where could talk without any snooping ears. For a second, the thought of talking outside on the balcony had briefly crossed her mind, seeming like a great idea until she thought of the realities. It was winter, and considering the altitude of the building they were in, it was bound to be extremely windy too. But besides that, it was another place where guests could freely come in and out as they pleased, not minimizing their chance of being heard at all. 

With that second alternative gone, Yelena was now all out of options when it came to being in this room. But thankfully, Yelena was quick to think of another solution, leaving her with an idea that didn’t involve them being on this floor of the building at all. 

All of this thinking had Yelena starting off into space for a while now, causing her to turn back towards Blair once her decision had come to mind. Surprisingly, Blair seemed to be deep in thought too, staring down at the golden liquid in her champagne glass, while a frown had twisted on her lips.

At the reaction of seeing Blair’s less than happy expression, Yelena heart couldn’t help but drop to the bottom of chest, her mind frantic with thinking, assuming that she was the one who had caused Blair’s obvious discontentment. 

She had ignored Blair in the favor of her own thoughts, which looking back at it now, didn’t seem like the greatest idea Yelena had in the moment. In reality, Yelena had no intentions of pushing Blair to the side, she was just really focused on working out a plan to protect the both of them. But Blair clearly wouldn’t have known any of that unless Yelena had told her otherwise, so she was almost justified to assume that Yelena was flat out ignoring her, especially when they had all this previous tension between them.

The familiar feeling of guilt had panged against her chest, making it only right to explain her thoughts and actions to Blair. Quickly putting an apology together in her head, Yelena took a moment to go over what she wanted to say beforehand, making a clear point to talk about why she was holding up conversation. With all of those thoughts prepared, Yelena had cleared her throat, trying to get Blair’s attention. 

As soon as she heard Yelena, Blair had lifted her gaze up from her champagne glass, their eyes briefly meeting before Yelena had nervously pulled her own away. At the sight of those blue eyes, Yelena’s mind had gone empty, everything inkling of thought now completely lost. But even with her plan erased, Yelena still wanted to continue on with something to the sorts of apology, even if it turned out to be a lot more disfigured than she originally planned.

Building up her courage once again, Yelena had turned to face Blair for a second time, her consciousness still in a blank from the last time. Her mind’s sudden paralysis wasn’t going to stop her from talking though, speaking on the first, immediate thing that came to mind. 

“We should go to my office.” was the blurted out response Yelena hadn’t even expected from herself. It was nothing along the lines of an explanation, or even apart her expected line of saying that she was sorry. And with her words already said, she was too deep in her own panic to try make a recovery from that, continuing on with her statement as if it were along the lines of her initial plan. 

“There’s too many people around.” Yelena had said in her attempt of going on with further detail, her words mostly falling short. In an effort to give more context to what she was talking about, Yelena had guestured over to large crowds in the center of the room, hoping that Blair would understand what she meant by her next sentence. “They might hear us talk.”

At first, Blair gave a strange expression, clearly confused by Yelena’s obscure request. But as Yelena elaborated further, in an incredibly bad effort to say at least, Blair had seemed to understand what Yelena had meant, eyes traveling over to the elevator as she gave another silent, yet confirming nod. 

While Yelena was somewhat relieved to get her point across, she was angry with how she delivered her words, nerves causing her to stumble and say things in a manner that wasn’t like her usual cohesive behavior. Compared to what her actions were like in reality, Yelena made them out to be a lot worse inside her head, making her determined to hold a conversation without seeming like a complete embarrassment in front of Blair. After all, she still had some more explaining to do, which in turn, gave her the perfect opportunity for redemption. 

But before Yelena had the chance to act for herself, Blair had seemed to take matters into her own hands, abruptly walking away without even a word of warning. And at the unexpected action, Yelena was immediately taken aback, scrambling after Blair as she hastily made her way over the front room, weaving through a few groups of people as she headed over towards the elevator.

For some reason, Yelena hadn’t expected the reaction of Blair wanting to go down to the office so quickly, especially when they were just talking about it a few moments ago. She had really hoped to burn some time before then, wanting to give out her silly reason for an apology before moving on to the serious stuff.

_ But maybe it’s better for things to work out this way. _ Yelena thought to herself as she cut around another group of people, finally catching up to Blair as she reached the front of the elevator. If she had continued with her talking, she would have made herself out to be a lot more stupider than she already sounded, which was something that wasn’t further needed since Blair already saw her as unfavorable. 

As Yelena approached her side, Blair had immediately pressed down on the embossed button to the side of the wall, causing the elevator doors next to it to slowly open up at the command. Blair was first to head into the elevator, walking over to the left side of the confined space, while leaving Yelena to the right.

Once Yelena had made her way in, Blair had pressed on the button that led to the office floor, the metal doors of the elevator closing once again, leaving the two in complete silence, besides the occasional ding of the elevator as it descended through the building's floors. 

Again, came that familiar oppressive silence, turning seconds in hours as the elevator slowly moved through the building’s many floors. Both Yelena and Blair were left itching at the obvious discomfort between the two of them, leaving them to their own devices of trying to cope with all the uncomfortability. Through her peripheral vision, Yelena could see Blair staring down at her own heels, rubbing her thumb anxiously across the sequined material of her clutch.

Yelena habits were a lot more apparent when it came to showing her true feelings. This was one of those rare occasions where Yelena wasn’t confident in herself at all, her usually well hidden nerves peaking through with frenzied movements, hands picking at her appearance just from seeing her stressed out reflection alone, showcased around the elevator’s mirrored walls. 

After the thousandth time of running her hand through hair, and as well as messing with the collar of her oversized dress shirt, Yelena was simply fed up with being trapped in this elevator, forced to look upon her mirrored appearance since there was no other comfortable option to look elsewhere. 

It was only then, as Yelena continued to stare at her less than ideal reflection, did she finally think about the drink in hand, something that she had completely forgotten about throughout the chaos of trying to talk to Blair. A glass of champagne was the perfect remedy for relaxing, so as Yelena brought the glass to her lips, she downed the majority of the glass all in the effort of calming down her nerves.

She didn’t think that Blair would notice, as she wasn’t loud or obnoxious with the way she had chugged down her drink. But even with her slick and subtle movements, Blair was still able to tell that Yelena was drinking, her disapproval causing her to give a huffy reaction that made Yelena turn to her direction. 

Blair wasn't directly looking at Yelena in the eye, but it was still easy to recognize her maddened emotion from just her body language alone. Yelena’s behavior was definitely striking on her nerves, in the calm kind of anger Blair had shown at their dinner, the cause of it obviously coming from that same reason too. 

Just from seeing how Yelena consumed alcohol on that night alone, clearly made Blair think that Yelena had an alcohol problem, especially after seeing her now, which probably only confirmed the suspicion. In reality, Yelena, couldn’t be more cautious with the way she drank, never overindulging to the point of complete drunkness. But on that day of their dinner, Yelena had let go of her inhibition, so overruled by the fear of being seen as nervous that she wanted alcohol to solve it all, to give her the assurance she was clearly lacking. But in turn, the alcohol had given her a little too much self assurance, causing her to get into this awkward position in the first place.

That’s where she truly went wrong in her decision to drink, because it wasn’t served under her usual pretenses of restraint. She had downed glasses of wine, one by one, all until she was at an unrecoverable point of tispy, inevitably causing all of the domino effect of events that lead her here today. Yelena had placed her job and life on the line just for the sake of her pride, wanting to keep up with her well known guise of being strict and professional, all for the sake of impressing Blair.

And even now, Yelena had just drank for the same reason she had used at the dinner, repeating the same history. She had always been flustered around Blair, and clearly, she didn’t want to be seen acting in such a way, drinking to wind down the effects of her nervousness. But if she learnt one thing from last time, relaxing was definitely not the case for her, the alcohol only making things worse by blocking her from making any rational decisions. 

If anything, Blair giving her the opportunity to make amends, served as great enough warning for Yelena to stop, not wanting to blow over her chance because of some stupid champagne. She was at that point of desperation of where she would stop drinking for the night completely, just to prove to Blair that she didn’t have a problem. 

But with that, came the fact of being seen as nervous, which was something Yelena wasn’t happy about sharing openly. It was a little too vulnerable for her liking, especially when it came to behaving like that among the likes of Blair. While the idea seemed extremely off putting, there was no way to chicken out now, not when they were already in the elevator, on their way to the 24th floor. 

The matter at hand was Yelena having to be a lot more emotive than she was usually, something that had to be done in order to ultimately work things out with Blair. It would truly be hell, but it was the step to put everything behind them. And with all the chaos between them, this was probably the last time they would ever speak to each other on a non-work basis, making the idea of sharing her feeling a lot less intimidating than Yelena initially thought.

Finally, after years of waiting in silence, the elevator came to a complete stop at the office floor, metal doors parting to slowly reveal the dark and empty office space. Through the large windows placed across the room, silver light poured in from outside, lighting up the prominent features of the room, like the rows of empty cubicles, along with the clear pathway between that led over to Yelena’s office.

With the doors now fully opened, the two had exited the elevator, walking across the carpeted floors as they made their way over to the opposite side of the room. Like before, Blair kept to the front, walking with the same fast and determined pace. Yelena had trailed behind her, trying to keep up as she pulled her keys out from the pocket of her pants, trying to locate the specific key for her office in the dim lighting of the room, all while trying to balance her glass of champagne.

Reaching the office, Yelena had finally found the key she was looking for, immediately sticking the piece of metal inside the doorknob. Twisting the key to the side, the glass door had opened with a silent, almost inaudible click, the tension of the lock unclicking felt on Yelena's hand. By now, the action almost felt like a reflex, considered a muscle memory after doing the same thing everyday for almost five years. 

While balancing her champagne glass in her left hand, Yelena had held the office door open with her right, gesturing for Blair to enter inside. And as directed, Blair made her way into the office, avoiding further eye contact with Yelena as she walked through the doorway.

With Blair now inside, Yelena had reached for her set of keys, the rest of her keychain dangling freely as her office key was still attached to the doorknob. Yelena gave a tug to the base of the key, only to be met with resistance, causing her to pull at it with more strength in order to get the key successfully out. 

As she did that, the force from the movement had caused her leftover champagne to dangerously splash up against the side of her glass, practically millimeters away from spilling out completely. If she hadn't chugged the majority of her drink earlier, she would have definitely spilt champagne on herself and the floor. 

Still, through her impatience, Yelena couldn’t help but click her tongue at the glass, mad at it even though it did nothing of her hypothetical thought. In a moment of blind anger, Yelena found herself wanting to get rid of the leftover champagne, all of her thoughts from earlier only making her more aggravated. So without thinking, Yelena got rid of her drink the only way she knew how to, by dumping it into the fake plant that resided outside of her office. 

As soon as she did it, Yelena had instantly regretted the action, realizing the fake, plastic leaves wouldn't absorb any liquid at all. Glancing down at the now wet plant, Yelena couldn’t help but bite down on her lip, praying the office wouldn’t reek of alcohol when she came back on Monday morning.

Entering her office, Yelena had quickly closed the door behind her, acting as if nothing majorly stupid had happened in the seconds prior. And thankfully, Blair didn’t seem to notice a thing, much too preoccupied with admiring the view of the city skyline. 

“Woah.” Blair gasped, her whisper of amazement filling up the ringing silence of the room. 

It was clear from just the way Blair had moved across the room, that she was enamored by the view, practically gravitating over to the panels of windows that covered the entire back of the room. But through her trance, Blair had taken a moment to stop at Yelena’s desk, placing both of her drink and clutch down on the cluttered surface before continuing on over to the end of the office. 

Even though Blair had been at her desk for a literal second, Yelena couldn’t help but cringe at the fact of Blair seeing her beyond disorganized work desk, piled with paperwork and other similar matters of the sort. Something that was more embarrassing on her desk, was the old coffee cup Yelena had left from the day before, and unfortunately, it was one of the more obvious items she saw when it came to looking at her desk. She just hoped Blair had moved fast enough not to notice it. 

But unlike Yelena, Blair was focused on anything but the organization of Yelena’s desk, approaching one of the window panes and placing her hand to the surface, studying the widespread view of twinkling city lights. 

In typical fashion to how the city usually was, artificial lighting made up for all the natural lighting in the sky, hiding the remnants of all stars, and sometimes even the entirety of the moon. From it being winter and all, it was one of those expected nights where the moon was covered by excess clouds and pollution, hidden completely from the human eye. 

But despite there not being a moon out tonight, cool and silvery light had casted its way through the windows of Yelena’s office, the source coming from all the buildings surrounding them, lit up in the same way, for the same celebratory party. And somehow, as Blair stood in the center of it all, she looked as if she were glowing in the light, the features of her face highlighted and defined as if she were the moon itself. 

Yelena couldn’t look away, her face flushing red as she watched Blair look up to the sky. Everything, from her amazed reaction, to her ethereal moonlit appearance, had placed Yelena into a daze, only confirming the attraction that she thought was long gone.

In the time that they were avoiding each other, Yelena had thought her crush on Blair was over, infatuation quickly replaced by her plausible fear of being outed. But now that the two were in the same room together, naturally at the force of their own will instead of being forced like last time, Yelena couldn't help but realize that her previous concern was anything but true. She was in it deep with Blair, which only brought up her initial problem of crushing on women in the first place. 

“The view from your office is amazing.” Blair exclaimed as she turned to Yelena, her true enthusiasm shown by the smile on her face.

It was the first time Yelena had seen Blair smile like this, nothing along the lines of her usual work smiles, given out just for the sake of being seen accommodating. Compared to those, this smile was truly genuine, born out of her own happiness instead of pleasing the feelings of someone else. 

Yelena could see it in her eyes, those breathtakingly blue eyes smiling back at her, showing a lot more than the put-together self Blair had always made herself out to be. Watching her beam with excitement, was like seeing a brand new part of Blair, completely unfiltered compared to the same person Yelena had saw earlier 

If anything, seeing Blair in this way definitely didn’t help with Yelena dismantling her crush any further. In a weird way, it was almost nice to know that Blair didn’t hate her to an entirety, that she was comfortable to act freely around Yelena, even with all of their previous problems at hand. Even now, as they stood and faced each other, Blair was making complete eye contact, a huge leap in confidence compared to earlier, where she was clearly too nervous to do so. 

And despite Blair turning towards her for conversation a few seconds ago, it was only through another moment of silence, that Yelena realized Blair was waiting for a response, surprisingly patient through all the seconds passing in between. 

At the immediate realization, Yelena began to panic as she racked her mind for answers, not wanting to waste any more time, and not wanting to be seen as any more stupid. So at the first flustered thought, Yelena had tried to regain what was left of her composure, clearing her throat before saying what came to mind. 

“The view from your office is probably the same.” 

As soon as she said it, Yelena couldn't help but cringe at herself, already failing at her attempts of avoiding stupidity. But while Yelena was beating herself up for her words, Blair couldn’t have seemed to care less about the disjointed response, countering with her own reply as she turned to face the window once again. 

“I know,” Blair answered with a soft chuckle. “I just think the view is a lot prettier at night.”

Yelena had only hummed in agreement, mostly at the fact of being at a complete loss when it came to continuing on conversation. Instead of stressing over what to do or say next, Yelena had looked towards the windows, taking the steps over to the paneled wall in order to catch another glimpse of the familiar cityscape. 

By now, the nighttime view of the city skyline was nothing new or exciting to Yelena, the idea worn by being dragged into penthouse parties by the sheer and forced will of Bianca. But despite that, Yelena could still understand the same feeling Blair had felt now, the exhilaration of first moving into a big city and seeing a sight like this. It makes you feel like you are at the top of the world, awake and alive in the city that never sleeps. Seeing that same drive in Blair, was enough evidence to know that she was new and fresh to the city, ready to carve her own way into her career, just like Yelena had done herself. 

But with all the seriousness of their problems waiting around them, Blair’s moment of thrill had gradually faded as she came back to reality, the weight of their troubles pressing down on her again as she shared a sobering look with Yelena, telling everything she wanted to say without speaking a single word. The two of them had been stalling for a while now, Blair clearly wanting to get this over and done with. 

That shared look alone was enough to warrant an agreement between the both of them, silently promising not to hold back on this. They were both at a point where they couldn’t ignore this any longer, even through their fair share of distracted moments. It was time to act on it, and despite the initial eagerness from the two of them, they suddenly were at a standstill once again, not wanting to take the first leap of action themselves. 

The idea itself was terrifying for both members of the party, so it wasn’t fair to just pinpoint the conversation starter on any specific person. But oddly enough, the added pressure of silence only made things more tense between them, and that alone made Yelena want to step up and take matters into her own hands.

So with that initiative in mind, Yelena had walked over to her desk, pulling her office chair from where it was tucked in underneath. With the type of conversation they were about to have, it was better for them to sit down, but of course, Yelena didn’t communicate that to Blair before she grabbed the chair from the table, causing Blair to raise an eyebrow as Yelena pushed the chair her way. 

“Sit.” Yelena had explained in order to clarify Blair’s confusion, but in her typical way of freezing up with nerves, her explanation sounded a lot ruder than she intended it to be, words coming off as commanding instead of helpful.

But besides her tone, Blair had followed her instructions regardless, smoothing down imaginary lines and creases on her dress before sitting down at the requested seat. Clearly, Blair hadn’t overthinked it like Yelena had, knowing what she meant even through Yelena’s horrible way of explaining everything. And despite Blair being okay with it, Yelena was still scolding herself for her word choice, even as she headed across the room for her second office chair.

Pulling her second chair from the corner of her office, Yelena had dragged it over to where Blair was sitting by the windows, parking the chair across from her. Having this conversation with Blair, meant that Yelena was going to stumble and mess up on her words, so accepting all her mistakes now, would make it a lot easier to continue through with this.

As she took in a deep breath, Yelena had sat down on her worn and deflated office chair, which was many levels away from being just as comfortable as her new one. The only reason for keeping this old thing was for the rare occasion of calling an employee into her office, to have them sit down as Yelena gave them the usual news of being terminated from the job. 

And here she was again, calling an employee to her office, this time for a lot harder of a reason than to fire someone. With her exaggerated exhale, Yelena knew that she had to be the one to start this conversation, since it was mostly her idea in the first place. After all, there was no use in delaying the inevitable, especially when they didn’t have all the time in the world to do so. 

“First off, I want to start with an apology.” Yelena began, her words drawing the attention of Blair, who was nervously picking at the nail polish on her fingers. “For that dinner, and for earlier.” 

“Earlier?” Blair interrupted, bringing her gaze over to Yelena’s. “You did nothing wrong earlier.”

“Oh.” Yelena faltered, her voice shrinking down to a mumble. “Never mind then…”

Taking a second, Yelena tried her best to shake the mishap, wanting to continue with her apology despite the added blunder, already taunting her alongside the others in her head. So in her best attempt to ignore all those thoughts, Yelena took in another reassuring breath before carrying on as she normally would. 

“About that dinner…” Yelena specified, picking up at the topic she last left off at. “I was incredibly drunk that night, more so than I usually get.”

Turning to Blair, Yelena was surprised to see that she had a neutral look across her face, not showing any obvious emotion besides the fact of her listening. It definitely wasn't helpful when it came to figuring out Blair’s exact emotions, leaving Yelena to stumble blindly as she went forth with the rest of her explanation.

“Regardless of how drunk I was at the moment, it was still extremely inappropriate for me to kiss you, and even that shouldn’t be my excuse for doing so.”

Yelena paused again, trying to rack her brain for a proper way to show her guilt without revealing too much of her own personal emotions. She truly wanted to be honest, but at the same time, Yelena wanted to go about this conversation without dumping her emotional baggage all on Blair, even if that meant she had to be a little vague.

“I honestly don’t know why I did that.” Yelena admitted. “But I know that I should have never done it in the first place. It was wrong and I’m… sorry.”

After she had uttered the last of her apology, the room had gone silent, so silent that they could practically hear all the outside traffic, even with the distance of being on the 24th floor. Even with the worst part practically over, Yelena still couldn’t stand silence between them, excruciatingly long compared to all the others. 

Her voice through the entire time she was speaking, was relatively normal to how she would usually talk, but with the way her heart was pounding, Yelena was surprised that her nervousness didn’t show through all. But now that she was left waiting for Blair’s response, Yelena’s anxiety had spiked through the roof, so intense, that she refused to look anywhere but her lap, just out of fear of facing Blair.

Through that eternity of quiet, Yelena was incredibly unsure with moving forward. She was starting to doubt that Blair would even answer at all, and if she did, would that be the end of their discussion? But before Yelena could think about those potentials any further, she was met with an answer, Blair finally speaking up after her year-like minutes of silence. 

“I forgive you.” Blair assured, a soft and understanding expression on her face as Yelena met her in the eyes, settling down all the worry and fear that had been swirling in her mind for the last month. Somehow, Blair wasn’t angry with her in the slightest, which turned out to be the biggest relief of them all.

“I mean,” Blair continued, flicking her eyes away as she went back to picking at her hands. “I just didn’t know you were—“

“Gay?” Yelena had answered for her, mostly so Blair couldn’t have the opportunity to fill in the word for her. Out of all of the terms she knew, this was the one she was most comfortable with using, the others tainted in her mind as slurs and insults.

It was her first time saying it aloud to someone that was besides herself. Not whispered when she looked at her reflection in the mirror, or said in between sobs as she cried herself to sleep, but to a real and live person, to Blair, who looked at her as if it were nothing special, nothing of the sorts of shameful. And to Yelena’s surprise, it wasn’t even hard to admit at all.

“Yeah.” Blair nodded, her voice hushed and secretive. “I promise I won’t tell.”

While it was reassuring to hear those words come out from Blair, it was still all so scary to have someone know, even if they did promise to keep the secret. Yelena didn’t want that to change her perception, to be seen differently by Blair. For any of her future actions being taken as flirty or advancing, because of the fact of her sexuality. 

Clearly, the hesitation was evident on her face, because as Yelena looked to Blair, she was quick to convince Yelena otherwise. Pressing her lips together and dragging her finger across the length of her mouth, Blair pretended to close her mouth shut on the secret, flicking the imaginary key towards the window and down to the city streets. 

And at the silly gesture, Yelena couldn't help but let a chuckle escape from her lips, her serious expression forming into a grin as she met Blair’s own smile. 

While that moment was nice and light compared to all the seriousness of earlier, it wouldn’t last as long as they wanted too, not when the two were so prone to reverting back to their awkward nature of ignoring each other. As they met with the familiar lull of quiet, they had come back to their own advances, Yelena gnawing down her lip as she figured out their plan for next, while Blair swayed side to side in her office chair, chipping away at the manicure.

With the room being so silent, it was hard for Yelena to ignore the sound, the soft clicking of Blair scraping her fingernails together. She would be lying if she didn’t say it annoyed her, but then again, Yelena had annoying habits too, like chewing on the ends of pens and pencils and leaving old coffee cups on her desk. 

From the sound calling her attention, Yelena had watched as Blair scratched away at the silver nail polish painted across her ring finger, only until something else had ultimately caught her attention. On her same finger was a small silver ring, a tiny ivory pearl embedded into the center of the band.

The sight of the ring immediately brought panic signals to Yelena’s brain, the idea of Blair being taken, instantly coming to mind. And in her alarm, Yelena didn’t think to double check it, quickly speaking of her worry.

“You’re engaged?!” Yelena blurted, eyes widening as she pointed down to Blair’s hand.

“What?! No!” Blair gasped, holding up said hand in the air. “This is my mother’s ring!”

And with that second glance, Yelena realized that the ring was placed on her  _ right _ hand, her face instantly flushing red at the mistake. 

_ You idiot _ . Yelena scolded to herself as she bit down on her lip, embarrassed with herself for not noticing a major detail like that in the first place.

“I’m single.” Blair clarified. “I haven’t been in a relationship since I was in high school— if you could even count that as a real relationship.” 

Yelena nodded as she listened along, trying to seem as interested as she possibly could be, while also screaming at herself internally for saying something so thoughtless and idiotic. 

“We barely even dated for a week.” Blair continued with the shrug of her shoulders, flipping her brown hair over to her shoulder. “I broke up with him because he wanted to kiss me.”

Although Yelena was relieved to hear that Blair wasn’t involved in a relationship, the subject had brought something else to mind, especially at the mention of Blair breaking up over a kiss. It seemed like that action meant a lot more to her, clearly holding some sort of specialty if it was the main reason for their break up. 

The possibility of taking that away from her, made Yelena sick to her own stomach, adding a new layer of guilt that she could never forgive herself for, if she found her suspicion to be true. With the whole start of their conversation being on the basis of their kiss, Yelena had to ask now, or otherwise the guilt of not knowing would tear her apart. 

Averting her eyes away from Blair, Yelena had to swallow the huge lump forming in her throat, unable to say her question out loud unless she did so. 

“Our kiss…” Yelena brought up once again, the rasp to her voice causing her to pause and clear her throat for a second time. “Was it your first?”

Their usual silence was almost expected with the nature of this question, taking its accustomed hold throughout the room, filling up the seconds between Blair’s answer, which was a plain and simple “No.”

No was an all too familiar word for Yelena, something often heard through business ventures and her everyday ambition. And while she hated to hear that word in those situations, Yelena was actually grateful to hear it this time around, all of the weight of her anxiety fading away at the sound of Blair’s voice. After everything she had done, it was a true sigh of relief to know that she didn’t cause any more harm to Blair, especially when their kiss was an ongoing problem in the first place. 

“Since you asked first,” Blair began, her words unexpected after the vagueness of her first response. “Have you ever kissed someone?”

Despite it being the same question Yelena had asked earlier, she still couldn’t help but hesitate on the answer, even though it was only fair to reciprocate like Blair did. 

“In college…” was the ambiguous answer Yelena had given out, mostly out of the fear of drawing out too many questions with anything further detailed.

To most people, the milestone of their first kiss was extremely memorable, even if it wasn’t ideal or special. But for Yelena, it was something she didn’t like to think about at all, mostly out of the shame of it suddenly happening in the moment. It wasn’t intentional like most first kisses were, or even expected in the slightest. Frankly, it just happened one night at a random bar, done completely sober, and with a rational and clear mind. 

That night in particular, served as an occasion to celebrate the early on achievements of their new company, no longer just a concept in their heads, but now a real and tangible reality that she and Bianca were in the process of making. And while everything was slowly falling into place for the company, Yelena was left scrambling to keep up with the new workload, another pile of added assignments on top of her final semester of studies.

At that point in her life, Yelena was drowning in all of the paperwork that was coming her way, overwhelmed with how little time there was in a day. For weeks, she was essentially a full functioning zombie, living with a full blown coffee addiction as she barely got any hours to sleep, pulling all nighters just for the sake of studying and finishing up assignments. And with how often Yelena was cooped up in her dorm, Bianca was the one to drag her outside into the real world, bringing her to restaurants and bars, or to any place in general where Yelena could temporarily wind down. 

But with the way Yelena was, relaxing wasn't something that came natural to her, especially when there were piles and piles of work waiting for her at home. So on that night, when Bianca had forced her into that bar, Yelena was already unhappy with the fact of being there, thinking about all the precious time she was wasting by sitting at the bar countertop and doing nothing. 

And on top of that, Bianca was urging her to drink, clearly wanting Yelena to unwind from her usual self-restraint. From a previous experience, Yelena knew better not to drink with her caffeinated and sleep deprived state, knowing that any possibility of hangover would be a thousand times worse than a usual one. It truly wasn’t worth the risk it was asking for, not when Yelena had back-to-back morning classes scheduled for the next day.

Despite her valid reason for not drinking, Yelena had still ended up with a glass anyways, ordering wine just to get Bianca off her back. No matter how many times Yelena had explained it to her previously, Bianca refused to understand where she was coming from, only giving unhelpful advice that involved drinking as the main cure to insomnia or hangovers. While Bianca was extremely talented in the aspect of running her business, she clearly had no knowledge in the medical field, her recommendations so outlandish that Yelena never followed along. 

As she and Bianca chatted alongside the bar that night, Yelena had taken a couple sips of her wine, which turned out to be a huge mistake on her part. With her stomach being empty from not eating earlier that day, a major headache had formed at the alcohol, the searing pain throughout her temple stopping her from drinking any further.

A pounding headache like that, was synonymous with the beginnings of a hangover, causing Yelena to quickly abandon her drink in favor of containing her migraine. But even with her effort of trading her wine in for a glass of water, Yelena’s attention was shot, distracted by all the splitting and sharp pains shooting across her skull. 

Even through her pain, Yelena had kept up her composed front, sipping on her water as she tried to keep up with Bianca’s rollercoaster of a discussion. As much as Bianca could talk, it was no wonder that Yelena hadn’t noticed all the looks from the bartender coming her way, as she was much too preoccupied with staying on pace to the conversation, than to notice the significance of those stares. 

While Yelena’s mind was busy and overwhelmed, she wasn't completely blind to the fact of someone staring at her. A couple of times throughout their exchange, Yelena had caught the female bartender staring at her, but she didn’t think much of it besides eavesdropping, something she assumed all bartenders did. 

Yelena continued not to think much of it, even when the bartender had conveniently clocked out of her shift at the same time of Yelena excusing herself to the bathroom. With that day being a weekday and all, the bathroom was a drastically different from what it was on weekends, completely devoid of people as Yelena entered inside, making the perfect place for an ‘unintentional’ meeting, 

After Yelena had finished using the bathroom, she had gone over to the sink and washed her hands, checking her appearance in the mirror throughout the process. As she dried her hands with a paper towel, the door to the bathroom had squeaked open, drawing her eye to the person entering inside.

There was the bartender, Yelena’s not-so-secret admirer. To this day, Yelena could remember her so vividly, without actually remembering her name at all. Tall and freckled, blue eyes and fiery red hair, approaching Yelena with such confidence and flirtatious behavior, that she was thrown completely off guard, forgetting how to speak and act through the banter. 

Of course, there were formalities shared between them, sharing names and where they lived around the city of Boston. Through Yelena’s nervousness around pretty girls, words had failed her once again, leaving her blushing and stuttering through her responses. And while Yelena was deeply embarrassed with the way things were going, her admirer had seemed to think otherwise, laughing and smiling through Yelena’s answers before eventually pulling her into a kiss. 

The seconds after that, had left Yelena stunned, frozen in shock as the bartender had pulled away. But before her admirer could move away completely, she had slipped a note into Yelena’s hand, sending a wink her way as she walked out of the bathroom.

And there was Yelena, paralyzed and bewildered, as she was left alone in the restroom once again. Her initial shock had instantly faded into anger, and the note in her hand was quickly crushed into a paper ball. She didn’t have to see it to know that it was name and a number, her suspicions already confirmed by the bartender’s behavior. 

In the heat of her own outrage, Yelena had rushed back into the bathroom stall, throwing the paper in the toilet before stomping on the toilet lever with so much force, that she truly was surprised to see it intact afterwards. While unnecessarily harsh, Yelena needed that note to disappear in that moment, wanting more than anything, for the shame of the situation to disappear in the same way. 

Anger had been her initial cover for it, but in truth to how she felt inside, Yelena was deeply ashamed. How a person could see right through her and notice something so deep and personal, a part of her well hidden, tucked away so no one else could see.

It was terrifying at that point in time, just like it was now, years later from that time and date. True to those same emotions, the world had slowly crumbled under her feet, assuming it would end in catastrophe at the likes of anybody knowing. But in comparison to last time, the outcome wasn't so scary or earth shattering as it originally seemed, despite the stakes being a lot higher than it was for her college self. 

Maybe it was the fact of saying it on her own terms, even if it wasn't intentional. Or maybe, it was just the luck of kissing Blair instead of someone else, who could have easily reported her to HR the next morning if they hadn’t been so understanding. To see that side of Blair, so patient and forgiving, made Yelena feel the utmost guilt for even putting her in that position, along with the assumption that she would even tell her secret in the first place. 

“I’m sorry.” Yelena found herself apologizing, breaking the cliffhanger of silence with another confession of her guilt. She hadn’t expected herself to say that out loud, but clearly her subconscious was telling her otherwise, admitting remorse for things Blair didn’t even know of. 

“Yelena, it’s okay.” Blair reassured, stopping Yelena before she could go on another apologetic tirade. “While I appreciate you apologizing, you really don’t have to do it again. I have already forgiven you for that kiss anyways.”

Yelena was somewhat surprised to hear those words come out of Blair's mouth. And yes, she was aware of Blair saying them at her first apology, but her mind was still very clouded in denial, Blair’s words giving the comfort she needed, but possibly not the truth, as this situation was way too serious to be forgiven in the matter of minutes. 

Without realizing it, Yelena was clearly showing her bewilderment through her facial expressions, bushy eyebrows furrowed as she gave Blair a questionable glance. She was only made aware of how glowering she looked, once she saw that flash of panic in Blair’s eyes, clearly assuming that Yelena was mad, when she truly wasn’t. Her face just had a habit of looking angry all the time, even through non-angered emotions like confusion. But before Yelena had the time to explain that, Blair was quick to jump to her own conclusions, clarifying the meaning of her previous words. 

“I understand if you're skeptical, but I’m not lying to make this situation any easier.” Blair admitted, her face now serious at the turn of her conversation. “Truthfully, I had forgiven you weeks ago, but I didn’t want to bring it up because I could tell you were uncomfortable…”

“Work wasn’t the right place to do it, and I had no other contacts besides that.” Blair explained further. “I’m sorry it came to the point of Bianca scaring you into talking to me. I swear I didn’t tell her anything, but she kept insisting that there was something going on between us.”

“Bianca knows everything that goes on.” Yelena interjected, sharing her piece of well-known advice. “I’m surprised it took her that long to notice.” 

“Well, this holiday season was incredibly busy…” Blair pointed out, bringing up a valid reason that Yelena hadn’t even thought of.

“True.” Yelena confirmed with the shrug of her shoulders. After all, she had the numbers in the finance books to prove it, this holiday season being a lot more profitable than the years previous. 

“But back to what I was saying earlier,” Blair reminded, maintaining her original point of talking. “I just didn’t want to pressure you into talking before you were ready, because I understand this might not be the easiest thing to tell someone.”

Once again, Yelena was stunned speechless by Blair’s way of awareness, somehow knowing those exact emotions, and putting it into words that Yelena was too scared to admit herself. Unlike Blair, Yelena was prideful, so protective of her feelings and emotions, that she didn’t dare to share them in fear of getting hurt. And if it wasn't for the situation they were in now, Yelena would have never expressed those feelings in the first place, not even to the people she was really close with. 

But Blair needed to know that she was sorry, that their kiss wasn’t on the grounds of anything malicious, but out of her own drunken manifestation of problems. And thankfully, with her gift of understanding, Blair had seemed to know all that, blue eyes staring into her soul and knowing what was deep inside, relating to problems and emotions that weren’t even her own. 

And while Yelena was obviously taken aback by all her empathy, Blair was clearly unaware of it otherwise, the panic on her face telling her uncertainty with Yelena’s current silence, the blonde’s face blank and inexpressive, not helping when it came to figuring out emotions. 

“I mean, that’s what I thought, but I still could be very wrong.” Blair backpedaled, her nerves evident by her voice and tone. “If you don’t want to talk about this, we can easily change the conversation to something else, like… college.”

“You’re fine, Blair.” Yelena asserted, ready to insist that all of Blair’s assumptions were quite alright. But her own nervousness, Yelena was scared of sounding too vulnerable, pausing to think of the right words to say.

“Thanks,” was the word Yelena was settled on, about to end her thought with just that single word alone. But with the meaning being so vague, Yelena needed to add more, speaking on her next words without a second thought. “…for saying what you said.”

At first, Blair seemed to be confused on what Yelena exactly meant, taking a second to think on her words before figuring it out. In typical fashion to how Yelena explained everything tonight, her words were clumsy compared to how they sounded in her head, only saying half of what she truly meant to say. And to her previous point, Yelena wasn’t willing to get so sappy, her badly spoken answer still doing well by the means of Blair, who had her signature smile back on her face. 

With everything seemingly settled between them, Yelena was almost relieved to see that smile, knowing that it was the end of all their unspoken tension. It was that same smile Blair had when she was looking at the view, a true sign of being relaxed and comfortable with where she currently was. And for Yelena, that was the ultimate weight lifted off her shoulders, seeing her worries of Blair disliking her, diminish under the presence of that expression alone. 

But besides calming her irrational fear, Blair’s pretty grin had made Yelena's face turn hot, her heart beating fast as she tried to stop herself from turning beet red. At the moment, she had nothing to be embarrassed about, making her true reason for blushing around Blair look somewhat obvious. 

Her best way of covering it up, was to distract herself with something else, like another conversation with Blair, where her growing blush could be easily blamed on her nerves, even though they weren’t as apparent as they were before. 

“I think you spoke for both of us when you talked about changing the conversation earlier.” Yelena resumed, running her hand through her hair as she recalled Blair’s earlier suggestion. “We can talk about college, or pretty much anything if you like.”

Blair had nodded in response, seeming to agree on the topic since she didn’t say anything otherwise. But apart from that nod, Blair had stayed silent on the statement, not out of the intention of being rude or dismissive, but for the reason of wanting to hear Yelena speak first, which was something understandable. Yelena knew Blair’s background from her resume, while Blair knew nothing of the sorts of Yelena’s, clearly wanting to discover more of her accomplishments. 

“I got my bachelors degree at Havard.” Yelena revealed, starting with the most basic information she could first think of.

“Really?!” Blair exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “I did my four years at Boston University, which isn't too far from Harvard at all. What year did you graduate?”

“Seventy-seven.” Yelena had answered, her response causing Blair to beam with even more enthusiasm. 

“That was the year I first attended!” Blair laughed. “That’s so funny! We could have ran into each other at a party or something!”

“Possibly,” Yelena shrugged, sitting herself up straight in her seat. “But I wasn’t much of a party person anyways, not even when I was a freshman.”

Throughout college, Yelena had always been incredibly studious, especially during her senior year, when the company was another main focus of hers. And even when her work was minused, Yelena still wasn’t a big fan of college parties, not when Bianca could take her to a place much more refined, with alcohol better than anything served up at those parties. 

“I wasn’t really a partier either,” Blair acknowledged. “I was mostly dragged in by friends who wanted me to be designated driver.” 

At her words, Yelena had let a snort escape her lips, finding the concept of Blair being forced to drive a car full of drunk people, completely hilarious, especially at the added reminder of Blair driving like a drunk person herself. 

“You, designated driver?” Yelena teased, her amused grin immediately causing Blair to roll her eyes. 

“I didn’t drive all the time!” Blair huffed, obvious in her act of pretending to be annoyed, as the upturn of her lips was her clear giveaway. “I only drove when we were off campus, and even then, I did it so everyone could get home safe.”

Even though Yelena did appreciate Blair’s kind sentiments, there was still a part of her dying to tease Blair with another question, wanting to continue with the banter, while also keeping it to a point of restraint, since she still wasn’t quite familiar with all of Blair’s boundaries. 

“Did you ever get pulled over?” Yelena continued to pester, keeping the taunting as nice and light as the question would allow it, since after all, it was nothing serious anyways. 

Just based on the assumption of how Blair behaved, she would never in a million years, be the type of person to have a charge in her name, clearly too morally correct to do anything considered bad. And already, the suspicion was confirmed as they did a background check before hiring her, not a single offense in sight, not even an innocent one like speeding. 

But thankfully, Blair had taken the joke the way Yelena had expected her to, bursting into giggles as her eyes traveled up to the ceiling. “I actually did.” 

“I’m surprised, even though I shouldn’t be.” Yelena quipped, placing herself to be nonchalant, when in reality, she truly was shocked to hear that revelation come from Blair. “With that way you drive, anyone would think you were drunk.” 

With that second jab from Yelena, Blair had placed her lips into a pout, acting all defensive and uptight until her eyes met Yelena’s, her mouth melting back into its usual smile as she couldn’t keep up with all the pretend seriousness.

“I didn’t get in any trouble at all.” Blair confessed through another round of laughter. “I guess the cop just liked me.”

Along with a shrug, Blair had moved her hair away from where it fell across her neck and shoulders, causing a few of her long locks, to somehow tangle around the thick chain of her necklace. Immediately, Blair had taken hold of the knotted strands, wincing as she proceeded to pull at the hair tied around her necklace. 

Yelena couldn’t stand to see Blair struggle, especially at the sight and sound of her pain as she continued to tug at her hair, despite there being more gentler ways to untangle it. It was only when Blair had let out an audible “ow”, did Yelena go over to help her, closing the sizable distance distance between them, by pushing her office chair closer to Blair, there knees practically centimeters away from touching, as Yelena leant over to help with the untangling as well. 

Gently taking the necklace into hand, Yelena had wedged her finger in between the thick knot of hair, loosening a good majority of it from where it was wrapped around the chain, before pulling the hair free. Only a few, single strands were left attached to the chain, which Blair had taken the courtesy of pulling and snapping herself. 

“Thanks.” Blair appreciated as soon as Yelena had pulled away, the two instantly going back to their own perimeters of personal space.

It was only then, as Yelena nodded along in response, did she truly realize how close they were in distance, those few centimeters between them, feeling a little too close for comfort, causing Yelena to push her office chair a few inches back. Her reply to Blair was delayed with the seconds it took her to scoot her seat back, the wheels of the chair dragging clumsily against the carpeted floor. 

“Yeah, it's no problem.” She had answered with another nod of her head.

There she was again, trying to act all nonchalant, when in reality, Yelena was nervous about the recuperations of her actions, thinking she might have gone a little too far with helping Blair untangle her hair from her necklace. 

In the moment, Yelena had jumped in before asking, wanting to help Blair before the possibility of dull office scissors came into play. But with the way Yelena had crossed boundaries before, she should’ve announced what she was doing before she leaned in, hoping she didn’t scare Blair with that familiar way of movement. 

But as Yelena thought about the situation some more, she realized that Blair hadn’t reacted negatively at all, seeming completely fine as it happened, as there was no flinching or recoiling, or any other body language that hinted at her being uncomfortable during the process. Even now, Blair seemed just as fine as she did before, relaxed and otherwise happy with Yelena’s presence. 

If anything, her behavior now, was truly opposite to how Blair acted at the beginning of their conversation, clearly uncomfortable then, with all her telltale signs of being reserved and extremely on edge. And after seeing that part of Blair, Yelena could easily spot that difference in her comfortability, finally recognizing that everything was okay, even with her intrusive thoughts trying to convince her differently. 

Despite all the relief that came from Blair not hating her, Yelena still couldn’t help but feel flustered, embarrassed with the fact of this letting this happen for a second time. Once again, Yelena had worked herself over with the potential consequences of her actions, thinking that Blair hated her for the simple slip up, even though that couldn’t be anything but false.

At the moment, Blair was quiet, but it wasn’t out of the reason Yelena had talked herself into thinking, as Blair was more focused on removing the broken and short strands of hair still attached to the chain link of her necklace. 

“I love this necklace, but it’s so annoying.” Blair explained, picking a few more of the snapped strands free, before tossing them onto the floor. “The same thing happened to me earlier as I got into a taxi.” 

At Blair’s mention of her necklace, Yelena had taken a double take, finding the necklace extravagant up close, just as it was far away, blue jewels noticeably bigger and luxe looking. 

“Your necklace is nice.” Yelena had commented, despite the fact of not being a big fan of such flashy jewelry herself. 

“Thank you.” Blair had smiled, sitting up a little taller as she straightened out the necklace across her neck. “It was a Christmas present from Bianca.” 

“She must really like you then.” Yelena revealed, confirming the suspicion she had known all along. “She has her favorites, but that doesn’t mean she’ll go easier on you. I know that well from experience.”

Blair immediately gave the nod her head, hands gently cupping around the gems of her necklace, as she clearly understood what Yelena had meant.

Mimicking her nod, Yelena had looked down to her hands, hoping to change the conversation to something lighter than the stress of work. On her right hand, was a simple gold band wrapped around her middle finger, a present of her own, gifted to her by Bianca.

“This was my Christmas present from a few years back.” Yelena shared as soon as she twisted her ring off her finger, holding it up in the air for Blair to see. “As you can see, Bianca loves to give out expensive jewelry.”

With a small laugh, Blair had moved her office chair closer, extending her hand as she met Yelena’s eyes, her quiet and unobtrusive way of asking to see the ring up close. And while Yelena usually wouldn’t do this for anyone, she had trusted Blair, dropping the golden ring onto the center of the palm.

As Blair withdrew her arm away from Yelena, she had admired the ring in hand, taking a second to marvel at the golden band, before slipping it onto her own middle finger. In comparison to how it fit around Yelena’s finger, the ring was loose and ill-fitted around Blair’s, her hands clearly thinner at the drastic size difference. 

“Pretty.” Blair complemented, holding her hand at a distance to see the sparkling ring from afar. “Bianca has good taste.” 

“She does.” Yelena agreed, only for her words to be immediately overshadowed by the booming sound of fireworks echoing in from outside.

The sound, along with the flash of colors, had instantly turned their attention over to the windows, the sky lit up with twinkling silver and gold fireworks, dancing way above the horizon and past the tops of skyscrapers. While these fireworks were expected, the two were quickly thrown off by the appearance of them, so lost with time, that they both anticipated the display to come later at midnight, not early in the night like they presumed the time to be. 

At the suspicion of being terribly wrong when it came to the time, Yelena had looked over to the clock hanging on her office wall, the time reading much later than she had assumed to be. Twelve o’ six to be exact, way past midnight and well into the new year, which obviously explained the fireworks going off.

“It’s midnight.” Yelena stated as she turned to face Blair, who had raised one of her eyebrow in disbelief.

“It is?” Blair had wondered out loud as she glanced to the clock, quickly confirming the answer to her first question, while also leading to her second one. “How on earth did we lose track of time?”

_ Well, time does fly when you're having fun _ , was the response Yelena had quipped inside her head, even though she had held her tongue from saying it out loud. The retort was obviously sarcastic, but Yelena knew it was little too much to joke about, especially when they both had their uncomfortable moments throughout their discussion. So instead of answering with that response, Yelena had shrugged her shoulders, replying with a simple and alternative “I don’t know.”

But despite that being a little offhandish, Blair didn’t seem to care anyways, more preoccupied with picking up her champagne glass for their own little toast to the new year. Yelena had quickly understood that hint, and was willing to join in herself, until she remembered her glass to be empty as she picked it up from the table, turning to Blair with a sheepish look on her face. 

Instead of rolling her eyes and acting similar to how she did in the elevator, Blair had only smiled as leaned over towards Yelena, pouring some of her own champagne into the blonde’s empty glass. After filling the glass half way, Blair had extended her drink into the air, Yelena doing the same as she waited for Blair to give out the rest of her toast.

“To the new year.” Blair cheered, keeping the toast to something short and sweet, much to Yelena’s liking. 

By now, Yelena was a little too used to Bianca’s over the top speeches, toasts taking centuries to complete, as Bianca would ramble on and on about the sentiments of a person or occasion. But unlike that kind of toast, the two didn’t have much history to reminisce on, or any possibility of a future to hope for, making it better to keep their celebration as plain and simple as it initially was. 

“To the new year.” Yelena repeated, the two clinking their glasses at the cheers of their toast, before drinking to the occasion.

With the display of fireworks still going on in the background, the two had both turned to the windows to watch the rest of the show, taking the occasional sips of champagne, as they enjoyed their solitude and stillness of their own private viewing.

They were more lucky to have this to themselves, the quiet and uninterrupted awe of being alone in the office, instead of being upstairs at the party. Even with the majority of fireworks being cut off by the buildings around them, the display still wouldn’t have felt the same up at the party, where even there, with the height of the top floor, the fireworks would still be hidden, all obscured by the crowds of guests, all desperate to see the same view.

It was more intimate this way, in the purest way possible. Silently, they had agreed to just have this together, staying in the office until the sky went dark, their man made stars now over and gone.

A few minutes after that, did they finally make their reappearance back at the party, which was brimming with more buzz and excitement than it had when they had last left it. And even through all that chaos, they were still immediately spotted as they stepped out of the elevator walls, instantly bombarded by the presence of Bianca, and her million pressing questions of where and what they were doing. 

“Yelena, Blair!” Bianca had greeted as she finally approached the two, coming from her long winded journey from across the room, ditching another one of her friend groups in favor of them. “Where on earth did you two go?!”

Of course, in the typical, guilt-trip dramatics she was prone to give, Bianca was beyond theatrical, acting as if she hadn’t seen the two in decades, as they just recently resurfaced from years and years of hiding.

“I was looking for you everywhere!” Bianca exclaimed as she placed a hand over her chest. “You even missed out on the toast!”

“We went down to my office.” Yelena had explained in the effort of calming Bianca, who was clearly butting into her business as usual, just as she did earlier. “We needed to talk things out like you suggested.”

“And everything was resolved?” Bianca insisted, acting all innocent as she asked her assumption, even though it was an obvious attempt at trying to pry out more information. It was another well known tactic familiar to Yelena, but was something Blair was simply unaware of.

And with knowing that, Bianca was trying to use Blair’s naiveness to her advantage, only looking to Blair as she asked her question, wanting to get the details she would never be able to budge out of out Yelena. 

In just the way that ploy was supposed to work, Blair became visibly nervous under Bianca’s stare, completely unsure on how to respond, since she wasn’t allowed to speak on most things that happened in that conversation, keeping to her words of secrecy as promised. But instead of answering as Bianca assumed she would, Blair had put a smile on her face, nothing like the ones she had earlier, but something that along the lines of being incredibly apprehensive as she only gave a nod as her answer. 

With Blair’s reply not being the smoothest, Yelena had quickly jumped in to explain things further, trying to make the conversation between them look as innocent and normal as possible, wanting to prevent Bianca from becoming more suspicious than she already was. 

“Yes,” Yelena agreed as she nodded along with Blair. “It was just a simple misunderstanding.”

At Yelena’s annoyed tone, Bianca’s dark lips had stretched into a smile, her usual blank eyes looking down at her in a chastising way. “Well, I guess that wasn’t too hard for the both of you, even with all that fussing about.”

Even though she held her tongue on any remarks, Yelena couldn’t help but roll her eyes, knowing that comment was targeted more to her than it was to Blair, who was more or less clueless to how their banter went about. 

“I'm going to head over to the bar for a refill.” Bianca declared, brushing off the situation as she made note of her empty champagne glass in her hand. “You two care to join me?”

“No thank you.” Blair was quick to reply, keeping to her usual polite formalities. “It’s getting late, and I probably should be heading out soon.”

Like Blair, Yelena was ready to decline Bianca’s offer, especially since she wanted to keep up with her promise of not drinking for the rest of the night, which she had already cheated at in the aspect of drinking to their toast, which was only done out of courtesy for Blair. But going to the bar with Bianca, was a definite way of being pressured into getting a drink, a matter Yelena didn’t have the time or energy to deal with after the night she had. 

Besides that, Yelena didn’t want to stay at a party she no longer had interest in, something that clearly wasn’t worth losing any more sleep over, especially when the weekend was the only time she could truly get a good night's worth of sleep. But unlike Blair, Yelena wasn’t about to make a gentle excuse of it, not when Bianca was currently in the habit of getting on her nerves. 

Instead, Yelena had given out a simple “I’m leaving too”, which was obvious in her undertone of being annoyed from earlier.

And while her answer coated with a lot more sass, Bianca didn’t fight or comment on her decision like Yelena expected her to, knowing better to let Yelena cool off after their little tiffs and disagreements. 

“I’ll see you both on Monday then.” Bianca had stated with the purse of her lips, looking to both Yelena and Blair before heading over into the direction of the bar. 

Now that they were alone at last, the two had moved away from where they were standing in front of the elevator, walking over to the other side of the room, far away from where the bar was located. 

“Bianca’s always like that, isn’t she?” Blair questioned as they strolled across the room, seeming to know the answer to her question, despite asking it anyways.

“Unfortunately.” Yelena had huffed the roll of her eyes, her annoyed body language telling everything that her mind refused to to say out loud. 

While Yelena was extremely blunt in her words, her affronted behavior was clearly funny to Blair, as she burst into laughter so contagious, Yelena’s mood couldn’t help but lighten up, beaming with the pride of making Blair happy.

As the two settled in their own little empty spot in the room, they began to talk about subjects more lighter and comfortable than before, forgetting all about their plan of leaving until later on in the night, when they found themselves both getting.

It was two a.m as they lost track of time, mostly talking about the ins and outs of work, with the added details of their own personal lives. If it weren’t for exhaustion, Yelena could have talked to Blair forever, their conversation no longer dull and as awkward as they were before, as her tiredness ended her ability to overthink. Talking to Blair was surprisingly easy, which made it hard to believe that Yelena once thought differently. 

Eventually they did make their way out of that party, together as they entered the elevator and went down to the lobby, together in the cold as they waited for taxis outside. 

The city that never sleeps, was definitely not sleeping tonight, traffic and filled taxi cars never ending at the influx of the occasion. And when a rare empty taxi did come their way, Yelena had let Blair take it, finding it only right to put her first in that situation. 

Yelena would wait for another hour in the cold, until an available taxi came along, ready to bring her home. But in that time Yelena had looked up to the sky, to the thick grey blanket enveloped around the city, hiding stars above them with its layers of smog. But they were still there, even though they were hidden in plain view. And without seeing a single one of them, Yelena still thanked each and every one lucky star in the sky, thanking them all for their roles in tonight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long chapter brought to you by the deep depths of my brain. Heres another alternative title that basically summarizes this chapter: Yelena overthinks. 
> 
> Mandatory explanation on why I took so long blah blah: I’m writing longer chapters now, so updates might take a little longer. Please be patient! I want them to be the best they can be! 
> 
> Also don’t be afraid to comment! Sorry I suck at replying, I’m socially awkward, even through phone screens.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This is my first time publishing on AO3 so I’m figuring out how this whole website thing works. Comments are always appreciated! 
> 
> Ps: I also posted this on Wattpad too


End file.
